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.
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.