Kidney specialist sues hospital for $20.5 million
Windsor Regional Hospital has suspended the privileges of its former chief of medicine, who is suing it for allegedly copying a kidney care program he created and poaching his patients.
Dr. Albert Kadri, a longtime Windsor physician and kidney specialist, is seeking $20.5 million in damages he says he has suffered due to a “toxic environment” at the hospital since 2016. His statement of claim, filed on Jan. 12, names the hospital, Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and 11 senior staff members of the two hospitals as defendants.
Kadri’s privileges at Windsor Regional were suspended Friday until at least November, the hospital confirmed.
In the court document Kadri alleges
Windsor Regional plagiarized a plan he designed in 2011 — and presented to the Local Health Integration Network — for a new model of kidney care. He also alleges that the hospital created a clinic to compete with his practice and “poached” some of his patients. “Consequently, the individual defendants facilitated the creation of a hostile environment which has made it impossible for Dr. Kadri to properly exercise his privileges,” the statement of claim says. “They did so knowing that the purpose of the campaign was to effectively reduce the competition faced by their own copy of Dr. Kadri’s model.”
It alleges the hospital has engaged in “fear mongering ” among employees, suggesting their jobs could be threatened by a lack of funding for his work, given Windsor Regional competes with Kadri. It is also alleged the hospital bullied Kadri’s sister, including taking her office away. He claims the hospital impugned his reputation, spread false rumours and “trumped up” allegations about him, declined to conduct patient audits at his request, conducted audits of his patients without justification, allowed racist and threatening communication from other doctors, and eliminated Kadri from decisions regarding his own patients.
Kadri also alleges he wasn’t informed when one of his patients was taken off the kidney transplant list. When the woman’s brother donated a kidney to help her, the organ went to someone else, Kadri’s lawsuit claims.
None of the claims have been tested or proven in court. Windsor Regional and the others named have not yet submitted a defence, though the hospital has filed a motion to stay the action in its entirety. As well, the hospital is asking to remove most of the individual defendants mentioned in the claim. Those motions will be heard Dec. 3, 2018. Neither Kadri nor his Torontobased lawyer returned messages Monday from the Star. Windsor Regional spokesman Steve Erwin said nobody from the hospital would comment beyond what is outlined in a letter and memorandum to physicians about Kadri’s suspension.
In the letter dated May 30, Windsor Regional alerted community doctors, who might refer patients, that Kadri’s privileges to practise at the hospital would be temporarily suspended beginning June 1 and lasting till at least November. Kadri, who from 2010 to 2015 was the hospital’s chief of medicine and renal medical director, has had privileges at Windsor Regional since 1999.
Other than Kadri’s suspension, there has been no change to the hospital’s kidney care program, the letter says.
Kadri’s suspension will remain in place pending a Windsor Regional Hospital board hearing on the matter. The board was set to hear the matter in May, though the process was adjourned at Kadri’s request.
A new date has not been set. The hospital letter suggests a hearing now won’t likely happen until at least late October.