Texas hospital accused of double-booking operations which saw unqualified medical residents perform heart surgeries is hit with huge $15million fine
A Texas hospital and a medical practice group have agreed to pay plaintiffs $15 million after they were accused of double- and sometimes triple-booking heart surgeries — which medical residents were forced to perform instead.
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, its affiliated College of Medicine and the Surgical Associates of Texas PA jointly agreed to pay the settlement Monday for the alleged actions between June 2013 and December 2020, the Ministry of Justice announced.
During that time, court documents say Dr. Joseph Coselli, now 71, and Dr. Joseph Lamelas, now 63, would schedule several heart operations at the same time.
They would then allegedly abandon one operation to perform another, without even informing their patients that they were being operated on by an intern or a colleague, prosecutors said.
A third doctor, Dr. David Ott, 77, of Houston, was also named as part of the misconduct but is listed as a cardiothoracic surgeon with the medical practice group Surgical Associates of Texas PA.
Dr. Joseph Coselli, now 71, Dr. Joseph Lamelas, now 63, and Dr. David Ott, 77, has been accused of performing multiple heart surgeries at the same time
A third doctor, Dr. David Ott, 77, of Houston, was also charged with misdemeanor assault
The investigation into the alleged actions at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center – a teaching hospital that employs physicians and residents from the Baylor College of Medicine – began on August 7, 2019, when an anonymous whistleblower filed a complaint.
The whistleblower alleged that the hospital “regularly ran two operating rooms at the same time and delegated important aspects of extremely complicated and risky heart surgeries to unqualified medical assistants.”
According to federal prosecutors, these operations were “among the most complicated operations performed at any hospital, including coronary artery bypass grafting, valve repairs and aortic repair procedures.”
“These surgeries typically involve opening a patient’s chest and placing the patient on the bypass machine for a period of time.”
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center has now agreed to pay federal prosecutors $15 million
Under Medicare regulations, surgeons who teach trainees how to perform these (or other) procedures are only allowed to leave the operating rooms at specific times.
But if the doctors were running two or more operating rooms at the same time, they didn’t want to appoint a backup surgeon to take over, prosecutors say.
They also allegedly failed to call for a surgical ‘timeout’, which would allow surgeons to pause and discuss key risks to avoid mistakes.
Instead, federal prosecutors alleged that trainees were forced to pick up the slack and perform crucial tasks such as making the first incision, Chron reports.
The medical staff then concealed from the patients that the surgeon planned to leave the room to perform another operation.
Meanwhile, Lamelas allegedly recorded being present for “hundreds of simultaneous overlapping operations” during his two years at Baylor, court documents obtained by USA Today reveal. He was paid per procedure.
The complaint also alleged that Baylor College of Medicine not only knew of these false claims and overlapping surgeries, but actually scheduled the operating rooms for the multiple surgeries, provided resources for the concurrent procedures, and provided residents to carry out the operations.
Sarah Coupland said she remembered Dr. Coselli was “very absent” during her mother’s emergency surgery
In one case, Dr. Coselli performed an emergency valve and aortic repair on a 46-year-old, who died weeks later.
The victim’s daughter, Sarah Coupland, said she remembers the doctor being “very absent” when her mother, Rebecca Arcangeli, underwent the procedure.
“I feel like he just comes in and says, ‘Someone else will talk to you. “I’m the one who performed the operation, but so-and-so will handle it,'” she said. told ABC 13noting that she was immediately concerned about the care her mother was receiving.
Just a few weeks later, Coupland said her Arcangeli was rushed back to the hospital and died.
“They told her a kink in the valve caused the blockage, but she was 100 percent certain the blockage was caused by the valve replacement they had performed.”
Federal prosecutors have also alleged that four patients died under Ott’s care without adequate review of his procedures, and said the practice of performing simultaneous surgeries led to extended periods of anesthesia use and excessive internal bleeding, Chron reports.
“Patients trusted these surgeons with their lives — submitting to surgeries where one missed cut is the difference between life and death,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani said in a statement.
Her mother, Rebecca Arcangeli, 46, would die weeks after the procedure
“This settlement reaffirms the importance of Medicare requirements regarding surgeon attendance and ensures that no physician, no matter how distinguished or successful, can circumvent the rules,” he added.
But an attorney for Baylor College of Medicine noted that they have not admitted to any wrongdoing.
“Baylor College of Medicine has not engaged in conduct that violates any applicable federal law or regulation,” Robert Corrigan Jr. said. in a statement to USA Today.
“The settlement recognized that BCM disputed that there were violations of federal law and that the college’s party to the agreement does not constitute an admission of liability by Baylor.
“The council decided to resolve the dispute amicably prior to a trial on the merits, after considering costs and expenses, including attorneys’ fees,” he noted.
DailyMail.com has also contacted Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center and Surgical Associates of Texas PA for comment.