A $15 million settlement was agreed to in a federal court in Texas over claims that Houston medical centers ran more than one operating room at the same time and allowed unqualified medical residents to perform heart surgeries.
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center (BSLMC), Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Surgical Associates of Texas PA (SAT) have jointly agreed to pay a settlement for allegations that federal prosecutors said occurred between June 2013 and December 2020, according to a Department of Justice news release.
Federal prosecutors said BSLMC has a teaching hospital within it, staffed by BCM physicians and residents who provide services at the medical center. According to court documents from the dismissal, the BCM physicians accused of wrongdoing include Dr. Joseph Coselli, 71, of Houston, and Dr. Joseph Lamelas, 63, of Miami, Florida.
According to court documents, Lamelas is accused of performing “hundreds of overlapping surgeries” during his two-year tenure at Baylor. The document further states that although it was physically impossible to perform so many overlapping surgeries, Lamelas still wrote in medical records that he performed these procedures because he was being paid for each procedure.
Dr. David Ott, 77, of Houston, also is named in court records as being involved in the misconduct, but prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas said he is a cardiothoracic surgeon affiliated with the medical practice group, SAT.
Baylor College of Medicine issues statement following $15 million settlement
Baylor College of Medicine emailed a statement to USA TODAY on Tuesday in response to the settlement.
“Baylor College of Medicine did not engage in any conduct that violated any applicable federal law or regulation,” Robert Corrigan Jr., Baylor College of Medicine's general counsel, said in the statement. “It is also important to note that no patients were harmed.”
“The agreement acknowledged that BCM disputed that any violations of federal law occurred and that the college being a party to the agreement is not an admission of liability by Baylor. The college, after considering the costs and expenses incurred by Baylor to date, and estimating future costs and expenses, including attorneys' fees, decided to resolve the dispute amicably prior to trial on the merits.”
USA TODAY reached out to SAT on Tuesday afternoon but did not receive a response.
Whistleblower reports medical malpractice to the federal government
According to the Justice Department, the misconduct investigation began on Aug. 7, 2019, after a whistleblower filed a complaint alleging that the doctors “engaged in the routine practice of running two operating rooms at the same time and delegating key aspects of extremely complex and risky cardiac surgery to unqualified medical residents.”
“The heart surgeries being discussed are among the most complex surgeries performed at any hospital, including coronary artery bypass grafts, valve repair and aortic repair procedures,” according to the release. “These surgeries typically involve opening the patient's chest and placing the patient on a bypass machine for a period of time.”
Prosecutors said teaching physicians have to follow Medicare regulations that dictate when they can leave the operating room during procedures, no matter how complex they are. According to the allegations, when surgeons were running two operating rooms simultaneously, they did not observe surgical “timeouts,” which allow the medical team to pause and discuss major risks to prevent surgical errors, according to court documents.
The court documents state that they lied on medical records to make it appear that the teaching doctor was present during the “whole” operation. The documents further state that the medical staff also did not tell the patients that the surgeon planned to leave the room to perform another operation.
'Patients entrust their lives to these surgeons'
According to the allegations, Baylor not only knew about the false statements made in medical records, but the school's medical center also designated operating rooms for overlapping surgeries, provided resources for simultaneous procedures and made physician trainees available to perform operations in the absence of teaching physicians, according to court documents.
“Patients entrusted their lives to these surgeons — agreeing to undergo operations where a single missed cut could mean the difference between life and death,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani said in the release. “Allegedly, the patients had no idea their doctor was moving to another operating room. This settlement reaffirms the importance of Medicare requirements governing surgeon attendance and ensures that no physician — no matter how famous or successful — can evade the rules.”
Under the False Claims Act, the private whistleblower who reported the allegations will receive more than $3 million from the settlement, the Justice Department said.