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Physician sues hospital over infection rate reports

Infection Control Monitor, August 3, 2007

A former physician alleges in a lawsuit that she lost her job after the hospital where she headed the infection control program retaliated against her for reporting a high rate of infections in patients who underwent amputations.

Lisa Esolen, MD, filed the lawsuit July 31 against the Pocono Medical Center in Stroudsburg, PA, reported the Associated Press (AP). The lawsuit says between 1998 and mid-2001, approximately 15% of the hospital's amputation patients developed post-surgical infections. At least three patients died in 2001 from a post-amputation infection, the lawsuit alleges. Nationwide, the average infection rate for such patients was about 3%, the lawsuit indicated.

Esolen gathered the data in her role as head of the infection control program and called it "an alarming and unacceptably high" rate of infection. The suit alleges that hospital officials tried to pressure Esolen into changing her findings. When she refused, the suit says, she was harassed and later the hospital did not renew her contract. The hospital's infection rate fell in 2002, after officials implemented changes recommended by an external investigator, the suit said. A spokesman for the hospital told the AP that officials would not comment on pending litigation.

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