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The Save Dr. Kearney Facebook Page

10/12/2016

15 Comments

 
Once again, for those new to this blog site, at present there are 30 posts on the blog and each has its own set of comments. To read the comments you have to hit the word "Comments" at the beginning or end of the post. Somewhat confusing is that when you bring up the comments for a specific post it eliminates the other posts from the screen. To bring the other posts back up simply go back to the top of the page and click on Blog. Finally, to understand the development of the blog it is best to read it from the bottom post (Dr. Paul Kearney Case) up. One point of note here, to read the earliest posts you have to click on the word "<<Previous" at the very bottom of the posts available.

The "Save Dr. Kearney Facebook Page" can be found here:
 
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=save%20dr%20kearney 

Summary:
The purpose of this Facebook Page is to bring to national attention and hopefully help rectify, an ongoing injustice at the University of Kentucky that is negatively impacting the career of Dr. Paul Kearney, the working environment of the University Hospital and the reputation of the University of Kentucky. We feel that Dr. Paul Kearney has been and continues to be subjected to an unjustified harassment campaign, and that the reasonable and correct solution is to return to Dr. Kearney his rightful position as a physician and a tenured faculty member in the College of Medicine. In other words, return Dr. Kearney’s patient privileges, his teaching privileges, his office, his computer hard drive and his salary.
 
Background: For the past 27 years Dr. Paul Kearney has been a trauma surgeon in the University of Kentucky hospital, and a tenured professor and teacher in the University’s College of Medicine. Back in July 2015, shortly after Dr. Kearney suggested an investigation into the financial management practices of the hospital and was publically admonished (some interpreted as threatened) by the head of the hospital (Dr. Michael Karpf), Dr. Kearney became the subject of an investigation into a trauma ward incident.  A handpicked assembly of administrative level university hospital physicians mediated this investigation, and Dr. Kearney was tried in absentia and without representation. This jury found Dr. Kearney guilty of using improper language in a trauma ward while saving a patient’s life.  Then, despite a personnel file that contained: a) 26 consecutive outstanding yearly performance evaluations signed off on by Dr. Kearney’s Division Chief, his Department Chair and his Dean; b) 29 teaching awards; c) a two million dollar endowment in his name; d) a single anonymous student complaint and e) this single patient complaint; this jury and its leaders came up with a punishment that included: a) taking away Dr. Kearney’s patient privileges, b) changing the locks on the door to his office, c) removing his hard drive and personal information from his computer d) barring him from entering the campus, e) barring him from conversing with any hospital employees, f) barring all hospital employees from talking with him, g) barring him from his tenured faculty duties of teaching and service, and h) declaring him a threat to the entire university campus. Finally, I think it is important to add that the trauma ward incident that was used as a pretense for initiating this punishment regimen was subsequently “dismissed with prejudice” by a real court and a real judge. The UK lawyers also reported the incident to the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure in an attempt to impact Dr. Kearney’s medical license, but they too found: “insufficient evidence of a violation to warrant issuance of a Complaint”.
 
The University’s Board of Trustees, although upholding the decision to revoke Dr. Kearney’s patient privileges, also recognized that this hospital judge and jury minimally overstepped its authority with respect to Dr. Kearney’s tenured faculty privileges.  The Board of Trustees subsequently voted to reinstate Dr. Kearney’s rights as a tenured professor. Not being satisfied with this Board of Trustees decision; the university president, his lawyers and the hospital administration then initiated a campaign of harassment with the clear intent to drive Dr. Kearney out of the university. Many of the details of this campaign, and the consequences of it, can be found in previous blog posts on this site. To highlight some of what has happened:

 
The Take The Deal or we will Ruin Your Career Campaign:
 
Dr. Kearney was assigned to a closet office space in a building that had recently been vacated, and his computer was returned but without its original hard drive and personal data.
 
In defiance of the Board of trustees mandate that Dr. Kearney’s rights as a tenured professor be returned; the university president, his lawyers and the senior hospital administration barred Dr. Kearney from functioning or teaching within the hospital. These same people then mandated that Dr. Kearney instantly come up with a basic research project to justify his faculty position. This obviously created an impossible work scenario for Dr. Kearney and therefore an avenue for further attempts to revoke his tenure and a pathway for firing him.
 
Dr. Kearney’s salary was reduced to ~14% of what it had been, and much less than probably all of the assistant professors in the College of Medicine.
 
Dr. Kearney’s department chair, Dr. Jay Zwishenberger, used this opportunity to author Dr. Kearney’s first poor performance evaluation, citing his lack of productivity for the time period he was not even allowed to enter campus.

 
 
The Consequences of this Campaign:
 
Dr. Kearney filed a Whistleblower lawsuit against the university that has recently been upgraded to include issues of harassment and retaliation.
 
Morale in the College of Medicine and hospital declined precipitously as is evidenced in the recent Press Gainey national survey measuring physician satisfaction.  Of the over 1,200 healthcare organizations surveyed, the University of Kentucky ranked last in physician engagement and alignment, and Dr. Kearney’s Department of Surgery ranked last in our hospital.
 
Many highly qualified physicians have left the hospital, and several of those most closely related to the instigation of these events have themselves left or are leaving.
 
Attempts to investigate Dr. Kearney’s original concerns with respect to money management by the hospital have resulted in: a) newspaper headlines questioning the secrets they might be hiding; and b) at least 3 more lawsuits wherein the university is suing the local newspaper, a former medical student and the state’s attorney general in what can only be construed as an attempt to prevent the revelation of these secrets.

 
Where the People Stand:
 
President Capilouto received over 100 letters of support for Dr. Kearney from people on and off campus.
 
Fearing reprisal for individual declaration of support for Dr. Kearney, Dr. Kearney’s physician colleagues showed their support by voting him to represent them on the University HealthCare Colleges Council, Dr. Kearny’s faculty colleagues voted him to represent them on the University Senate and resident students showed their confidence and support of Dr. Kearney by recently awarding him a Lifetime Achievement Award.
 
The bottom line being, the vast majority of people who know Dr. Kearney and have worked with Dr. Kearney view him as a highly talented and respected trauma surgeon, an excellent educator and a genuinely kind individual. We also feel it is time for the University President and the Board of Trustees to call off the dogs and right this wrong. It is clearly costing the university time, treasure and talent.


15 Comments
DT
10/12/2016 06:51:17 am

I'm a physician in UK's hospital and not really big on airing our dirty laundry on a national stage, but in this case I think all other avenues for remedying this injustice (and yes I view it to be that) have been attempted and have failed. It is clear that this is a festering sore that has and continues to impact the environment at the hospital and especially the Department of Surgery. The lawyers appear to have made this some type of personal battle and clearly are not serving the best interests of the hospital and university. It is time for the BoT to step in and do their job. Return Dr. Kearney's rights and privileges and let us move on.

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Dan Noonan
10/12/2016 11:00:22 am

Thanks DT for the comment. It is unfortunate that the lawyers let this thing get so personal. I think everyone recognizes this for the vendetta that it truly is. With Boulanger leaving, Moliterno stepping down, Karpf leaving, a new head at KMSF, many talented faculty physicians leaving, the Press Gainey survey results and the many lawsuits connected to this case, you would have thought the BoT would have stepped in and said "enough is enough". Give Dr. Kearney back his rightful position as physician and professor in the College of Medicine.

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Voice of Reason
10/12/2016 12:47:16 pm

Do you really think that all of these "bad things" about UKHC/COM will all be reversed by "reinstatement" of Kearney?

Dan Noonan
10/12/2016 02:37:35 pm

Thanks for the comment Voice of Reason. To begin with these are not bad things about UKHC, but about the governing practices at UKHC that resulted in the extreme sanctions imposed upon Dr. Kearney.Therefore, yes, I think returning Dr. Kearney's privileges would be a good start. I can't see much of a downside.

Voice of Reason
10/12/2016 07:57:39 pm

You do realize that the Kearney case has gone way to far for UK/UKHC to turn back. And even if he "wins" in the circuit court the case will just be appealed and its very unlikely that the courts will take the position that they can force a hospital to employ a doctor that the hospital does not want to employ. In fact, in looking into this further I could find only one recent decision in California where case that looks superficially similar to the Kearney case was settled in the plaintiffs favor (and that is now on appeal). I also don't think that the coordinated "public acclaim" strategy is going to be viewed as being of any relevance to the case by the courts. But by all means knock yourselves out if it makes you feel any better about it.

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Dan Noonan
10/13/2016 03:12:01 am

Thanks for your comment Voice of Reason. You may be correct in your predictions on the outcome of this case, but sometimes winning does not require winning. I think everyone recognizes that this is the proverbial David vs. Goliath battle, but sometimes these battles need to be fought, if not for this David than for the next David that might come along and recognize something is wrong and wish to expose it. Along these lines, this more public exposure of the Dr. Kearney case revealed at least one other possible ongoing legal battle at this university with a very similar background to the Dr. Kearney and the Dan Ross matters. That being a person suing the university for being fired after they attempted to expose financial mismanagement practices. Perhaps even more interesting is the presence of those familiar 4 letters KMSF in this litigation. If this proves accurate, then we are looking at minimally 3 cases within the past 5 years wherein the administration and lawyers of this university have had to fight legal battles with former employees who questioned the financial management practices here in the hospital. One has to ask themselves, if these are the fighters, how many other victims are out there who chose not to fight, or were simply reorganized out?

Furthermore, the information that I have received suggests that this is not a case of employing a doctor that the hospital does not want to employ, but rather employing a doctor that a few administrators and a few lawyers at this hospital do not want to employ. I think it has been made pretty clear that the vast majority of faculty staff and students of this hospital think otherwise.

Finally, perhaps it is just coincidence or that time of the year, but I find it interesting that many of the senior administrators involved in this Dr. Kearney matter are either leaving the university or attempting to move out of harms way. Whatever the case, like I said, sometimes winning does not require winning.

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BMJ
10/16/2016 10:42:53 am

Well said Dr. Dan. The university administrators and lawyers think they are omnipotent. They clearly think they can make up and break laws as they so please, and terminate anyone who might disagree with them. Let's face it, exposure of the laundering of hospital income through KMSF is the real driving force behind these many lawsuits the university has ongoing. Furthermore, it must be pretty serious stuff because they are investing a whole lot of university money and reputation to prevent public exposure of what is happening behind the KMSF curtains. Keep up the good fight and thanks from those of us who recognize the truth but can't afford the fight.

Dan Noonan
10/16/2016 05:14:12 pm

Thank you BMJ for your comment. I tend to agree, all of the evidence suggests that this is much more than some trauma surgeon using offensive language in a trauma ward.

Dan Noonan
10/15/2016 04:32:40 pm

Sorry folks but due to some repairs being made to my internet lines it is only intermittently accessible, and even then very, very poorly. Hopefully that will be resolved shortly, but until then please feel free to keep commenting, and when I am able I will approve. Thanks.

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Informer
10/16/2016 05:05:47 pm

I think you should know that at least one of the universities, what 8-10 attorneys is monitoring the blog and Facebook page. They need to.

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Dan Noonan
10/16/2016 05:35:00 pm

Thank you Informer for your comment. I actually hope that the UK lawyers are monitoring this blog. Furthermore, I hope that the blog offers them the opportunity to reflect upon the situation where in "his absence"; the administrators and lawyers of UK tried, convicted and sentenced to academic death a tenured full professor at this state university. Hopefully they do not teach this stuff in the School of Law here on campus.

When not one but two legitimate judicial bodies, the Kentucky courts that dismissed this incident with prejudice and the Kentucky Board of Licensure that declared that there was "insufficient evidence of a violation to warrant issuance of a Complaint", basically rule that there is no violation, you would think that at least that the law offices at UK would accept these rulings. But no, what we appear to have here are lawyers that feel that UK is above the law and can establish their own laws to fit their personal agendas. Like I said, I hope they don't teach this stuff in our law school.

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Dan Noonan
10/17/2016 11:56:47 am

Thank you for your comments Drug Monkey and Mole 2. I fully share your concerns and I suggest that you post them on the Facebook page. I can guarantee you will not see that stuff on the blog. As you well know, it is why I was relegated to implementing this burdensome approval option. With respect to the blog, I am looking for constructive comments or comments that address issues and concerns in the UK hospital, the College of Medicine and the ongoing harassment of a tenured full professor faculty member in an attempt to drive him out of the university. The point being, if they can get away with administratively destroying the career of a respected full professor who attempted to challenge their authority, the doors are open for them to do it to anyone.

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Dan Noonan
10/17/2016 12:45:27 pm

Whoops, I see I did not address your concerns in my comment Mole 2. Sorry about that. Seeing that your concerns deal with posts being made on the Facebook page and not this blog, I suggest, like with Drug Monkey's concerns, that you simply air your concerns on the Facebook page.

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SK
10/19/2016 04:48:49 am

I am not sure where it is at now, but the Save Dr. Kearney FB page was at 16,577 visitors, 1,111 likes and over 600 publicly identifiable people signing a petition requesting the return of those patient and teaching privileges that the university president and the totally biased court of hospital administrators and university lawyers took away. Putting it in terms that the university administrators and the BoT might recognize, 16,577 visitors is probably more than will be at our last home football game. Gooooooo Dr. Kearney FB page!

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Dan Noonan
10/20/2016 03:58:47 am

Thanks for the comment SK. I agree, this Save Dr. Kearney Facebook page does make a very strong statement that both the university president and the BoT appear to be lending a deaf ear to. This vendetta has cost the university hospital significantly, but the university president, his lawyers and the hospital administrators appear to believe that their egos supersede the rights of faculty and the wishes of the majority of faculty, staff, students and as the Facebook page and petition suggest, many out there in the general public. It is a pretty sad statement for a public institution of higher learning.

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