EP 82: Hospital Peer Review Process: What You Need to Know as a Physician

Parallax by Ankur Kalra

“Sham peer review or malicious peer review is defined as the abuse of a medical peer review process to attack a doctor for personal or other non-medical reasons.” “Most doctors — warns Dr Kaki — do not understand that ultimately your privileges are not dictated by your colleagues through a fair process, but hospital administration controls our destiny”. In 2018, Dr Kaki was subject to a campaign of retaliation that set out to revoke the well-respected cardiologist’s privileges. Today, Dr Kaki is Director of Mechanical Circulatory Support at Ascension and Clinical Associate Professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine. In this week’s Parallax Dr Kalra’s guests are the team that fought for justice in Dr Kaki’s case: Dr Lawrence R Huntoon, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and Deborah Gordon, employment attorney. Dr Kaki walks us through his Kafkaesque experience and the knowledge he acquired during his battle with his former hospital. We get insight into the stages of a peer review process and the role of key stakeholders. Dr Huntoon, expert in this field, helps us put Dr Kaki’s experience in context and talks about the prevalence of sham peer reviews through shocking cases. Ms Gordon supports the discussions with practical tips and insights on the role of an attorney. Join Ankur and his guests for a must listen show on your rights as a physician. What do you need to know about the hospital peer review process and your rights? What can you do if targeted? What is Dr Kaki’s advice to physicians? Stay tuned for Part 2 of Parallax’s Medico-Legal series with Dr Kalra and Dr Huntoon. Resource: https://shmpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jhm.12903 Questions and comments can be sent to “[e-mail]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guests: @DrAmirKaki, Dr Lawrence R Huntoon and Deborah Gordon host: @AnkurKalraMD and produced by: @RadcliffeCARDIO.