University Physicians Healthcare wrongfully terminated the former head of surgery at Tucson’s only academic medical center and should apologize to him, a panel of three prominent liver transplant surgeons says.
The panel’s recommendation about Dr. Rainer Gruessner, who was head of surgery at the University of Arizona Medical Center between 2007 and 2013, was released Monday. The three surgeons based their decision on testimony they heard during a nine-hour public hearing in Tucson on Aug. 5.
The burden of proof at the hearing, which came about as a result of a lawsuit filed by Gruessner, was on University Physicians Healthcare (UPH) to prove it was justified in firing Gruessner in December.
The panel also wrote that UPH should retract a complaint it filed with the Arizona Medical Board that accuses Gruessner of unethical conduct, that it should continue to pay Gruessner for up to one additional year or until he finds another job, and that each side in the case should pay their own legal fees.
The panel’s recommendation now goes to the board of directors of UPH, which is the company that staffs the UA Medical Center with physicians from the UA. That board’s members are Dr. Carlos Borras, Dr. Mindy Fain, Jean Fedigan, Dr. Michael Lemole, Steve Lynn, Karen Mlawsky, Barbara Peck, Dr. David Sheinbein and UA Health Network CEO Dr. Michael Waldrum.
Both sides in the case agreed that the quality of care the German-born transplant surgeon gave to patients was never in question.
Gruessner was suspended with pay in September after he was accused of being involved in amending a database of liver transplant records. UPH officials said his conduct during that time justified his termination. But Gruessner said all along he’d merely corrected a database that had been wrong.
He told the panel that senior leaders retaliated against him because he questioned their competence. He specifically named former UA College of Medicine dean Dr. Steve Goldschmid, who stepped down from his position in March to take a job with the UA Health Network.
Goldschmid did not testify at the hearing and health network officials did not respond to a request to interview him Monday.
“Unfortunately, Dr. Gruessner’s exit was anything but dignified,” the panel wrote in its findings. “The panel believes that the charged political rivalry between Dr. Goldshmid and Dr. Gruessner led to misunderstandings which, had good will and trust prevailed, could have been readily avoided.”
The panel found that Gruessner, “did not alter records,” and that he acted reasonably to correct errors he found in a database.
UPH officials on Monday issued a statement of thanks to Phoenix attorney Randy Yavitz, who served as the hearing officer, and to the panel members, who were Dr. John Fung of the Cleveland Clinic; Dr. Stuart Knechtle of Emory University and Dr. Sandy Florman of Mount Sinai Hospital.
“The panel’s recommendations will be considered carefully by the UPH Board of Directors,” says the statement, emailed by spokeswoman Katie Riley.
“The Board will schedule a meeting to discuss the recommendations and will render its final decision soon thereafter.”
The panel's decision says UPH should issue Gruessner a public apology of its design that wishes Gruessner well in his future endeavors, "and thank him for his role in making UMC/UPH a world class transplantation center."
“It should specify that any prior discussion of misconduct have been officially retracted," the panelists go on to say.
“The panel believes that Dr. Gruessner deserves to have his name cleared. The panel is hopeful that Dr. Gruessner will pursue his career as opposed to litigation.”
The panel issued its decision in a list of 21 different findings. The panelists say that Gruessner should be reinstated as an employee of UPH, but, “essentially a faculty member without titles or clinical duties.”
The decision says reinstating Gruessner as chairman of the department of surgery, chief of abdominal transplantation and director of the heptopancreaticobiliary program would be disruptive of current efforts to resuscitate the UA Medical Center’s transplant program.
A new UA department of surgery chief, Dr. Leigh A. Neumayer, began her job last week.
Gruessner on Monday said he was very happy with the decision overall, since he has spent the past year and $350,000 trying to clear his name. He said he hopes that his case encourages others in similar positions to stand up for themselves and fight for justice.
“There are a few things (in the decision) I don’t agree with, but we’ll get through it. This is a good day,” Gruessner said.
“I am so relieved they found the termination was not just and that they owe me an apology.”
Gruessner was recruited to head the UA Medical Center’s then-struggling surgery department from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He is credited with expanding and strengthening the UA department of surgery, and for successfully leading the team that treated then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other victims of the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting.
Under Gruessner’s direction, the hospital offered adult and pediatric kidney and liver transplants, as well as heart, lung, islet cell, intestine and pancreas transplants. The hospital has since performed significantly fewer transplants, and has closed its islet cell and intestine transplant programs.
