Here are 10 cases of physicians suing their former employers that Becker's has covered in 2023:
1. Bangor-based Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center and one of its physicians are being sued by a former colorectal surgeon who claims she was discriminated against based on her sex and country of origin.
2. David Lankford, MD, an Indiana-based pediatric intensivist, filed a lawsuit against Fort Wayne-based Lutheran Medical Group to prevent his former employer from enforcing a noncompete agreement.
3. David John Hetzel, MD, sued Asheville, N.C.-based Mission Hospital, owned by HCA Healthcare, in early June, alleging libel against his former employer.
4. A Black, gay orthopedic surgeon is suing Los Angeles County, Keck Medicine of USC and University of California Health Los Angeles over alleged discrimination.
5. Family physician Matthew Heckman, MD, is suing Pittsburgh-based UPMC, alleging wrongful termination. Dr. Heckman is a former employee of Wellsboro, Pa.-based Laurel Health Centers, a subsidiary of UPMC Wellsboro.
6. New York physician Leigh Ann Hutchinson, MD, is suing her former employer South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, alleging decades of discrimination. Dr. Hutchinson, the only Black electrophysiologist at the hospital, alleges the discrimination she faced at the Northwell Health hospital resulted in a yearly income loss of roughly $900,000 since 2004.
7. Samer Ilayan, MD, is suing Grand Rapids and Southfield, Mich.-based health system Corewell Health over alleged religious discrimination. He alleges in the lawsuit that Corewell's Beaumont Athens Clinic in Taylor, Mich., wrongfully terminated him after denying his requests for five-minute daily breaks for prayer and time on Fridays to attend weekly prayers.
8. Randall Tobler, MD, is suing Memphis, Mo.-based Scotland County Hospital, alleging slander and defamation after he was allegedly wrongfully terminated as CEO. Dr. Tobler claims the hospital's board members and employees violated the state's Sunshine Law by making false, defamatory comments to get him fired from his position, including that he allegedly embezzled money from the hospital's day care and pharmacy.
9. Anne Grand'Maison, MD, is suing Buffalo, N.Y.-based Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, alleging it compromised patient safety and is gender biased. The lawsuit alleges that in at least 20 cases, Dr. Grand'Maison, who is trained in sarcoma, received pathology reports for sarcoma patients that had several diagnostic errors, and that doctors who she consulted with on diagnoses and treatments were undereducated in sarcoma research.
10. James Mooney, MD, is suing Atlanta-based Emory University over alleged bias after he was demoted during a sexual harassment investigation. Dr. Mooney, a pediatric anesthesiologist, was cleared of all allegations. He is currently a faculty member for Emory's School of Medicine and works at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.