A Kentucky cardiologist filed a defamation lawsuit May 15 against Owensboro (Ky.) Health Regional Hospital and two of its physicians, the Messenger-Inquirer reported May 19.
Roshan Mathew, MD, a cardiologist and owner of Advanced Cardiology of Owensboro, worked as a Owensboro Health private physician from 2004 and 2010, then became a hospital employee in 2010. He went into private practice in 2016, which is when "certain administrators and hospital-employed cardiologists ... began to regard Dr. Mathew more as a competitor than as a colleague," according to the suit.
The suit, which names Owensboro Health, George Dunham, MD, and Kerry Paape, MD, as defendants, claims Dr. Dunham and Dr. Paape defamed Dr. Mathew and caused him to lose patients and staff.
The complaint alleges that Dr. Paape had been "reviewing records in order to submit complaints about Dr. Mathew to [hospital] administration, and therefore get revenge on him for not referring enough cases to her."
Mr. Mathew was allegedly informed in March that the hospital's quality committee was reviewing "a handful" of his cases, which were referred to Andrew Poret, MD, "because of alleged quality concerns that had been raised regarding Dr. Mathew's medical judgment to refer these cases for surgery," court documents said.
Becker's has reached out to the hospital for comment and will update this story if more information becomes available.