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Former resident sues university over harassment, firing

Residency Program Insider, July 12, 2018

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A former resident of the University of Missouri School of Medicine’s neurosurgery program is suing the school for $50 million, alleging that he was harassed and dismissed from the program without good cause by the program’s chief, N. Scott Litofsky, MD.

In the lawsuit against the university’s Board of Curators, Rylan Brantl, MD, claims Litofsky subjected him to verbal harassment and would often humiliate him in the operating room during his time as a resident from 2008 to 2013. He also alleges his surgical skills were unfairly criticized and he was required to repeat his fourth year despite passing the board exams. He claims that in 2012 he was sent to the University of Utah to train as part of a partnership between the two schools where he received positive evaluations.

Upon his return from Utah, Brantl was cut from the neurosurgery program in his fifth year. He filed a grievance in 2013 after he was informed his contract would not be renewed. He claims he was given no reason for his dismissal, received no response to his grievance within the required 30 days, was told by the university that his grievance hearing would be no more than an hour, and that the university had offered his position to another resident before his grievance was heard.

Brantl also claims the program violated the ACGME’s requirement limiting residents’ clinical and educational work hours to 80 per week and that the university failed to address his and other residents’ concerns regarding Litofsky and the program. Allegedly when Litofsky became aware of comments residents made in the program’s annual evaluation, he gave a public lecture in which he scolded and made threats against residents who participated in the evaluation and instructed unhappy resident to leave the program.  

Source: Missourian
 

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