Would you want a medical resident to operate on you, without a surgeon present to supervise? We didn’t think so.
Well, that’s allegedly what happened at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, just one of several charges made against the facility in a whistle-blower lawsuit, according to United Press International.
The suit was filed by Rush surgeon Dr. Robert Goldberg and a former hospital executive. They charge that Rush risked patient health to gain “monetary rewards and celebrity status.”
The hospital in a statement said “the lawsuit has no merit and (it) intends to vigorously defense the case.”
The suit names six physicians, charging that they violated Medicare billing rules in 2004 and 2005 that mandate that teaching doctors be physically present when difficult parts of surgey are being performed by residents.
According to UPI, residents are post-graduate doctors who get specialized training under the supervision of a fully licensed physician.
At Rush, the suit alleges that one surgeon never was in the operating room to supervise a procedure a resident was doing. It also charges that in another case, a surgeon monitored residents’ operations via a TV monitor while performing his own surgeries in another room.
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