A physician will receive $3.7 million in damages in his civil lawsuit against Columbus, Ohio-based Mount Carmel Health System and three physicians after a jury found the defendants discriminated against the plaintiff, who is black, according to a Columbus Dispatch report.
The eight-member jury award Vincent Guinn, MD, damages in his suit against Mount Carmel and Thomas Alexis, MD, Barney Beaver, DO, and Michael Murnane, MD.
The defendants agreed not to appeal the jury's decision as part of a settlement reached during the trial, according to the report.
Dr. Guinn, a cardiologist, sued after a hospital review committee and the board of trustees suspended his privileges with Mount Carmel in 2007 and 2008, claiming his care of one patient had fallen below standards. Dr. Guinn claimed the charges against him were exaggerated, and white physicians with privileges at Mount Carmel were not suspended when similar accusations were made against them, according to the report.
He also argued Drs. Murnane, Beaver and Alexis conspired to drive him away from Mount Carmel so he would not compete with them, according to the report.
Dr. Guinn now has privileges at Grant Medical Center, part of Columbus-based OhioHealth, and has his own practice.
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