Dr. David Shapiro says that "frank deceptions" are to blame for his situation.
By PAUL DE LA GARZA and STEPHEN NOHLGREN
Published April 17, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - In yet another sign of turmoil at Bay Pines VA Medical Center, acting chief of surgery Dr. David Shapiro has been reassigned pending the outcome of an administrative investigation.
Shapiro said hospital director Smith Jenkins had told him Thursday that effective immediately he would work as a staff surgeon until allegations about administrative misconduct have been reviewed.
Shapiro said Jenkins did not elaborate on the allegations. An internal review last year concluded that under Shapiro, the department of surgery is "dysfunctional and demoralized."
"This has been so hugely distressful to me," Shapiro said after meeting with Jenkins.
He blamed the negative reviews of his leadership skills on his enemies at the hospital.
Bay Pines spokesman John Pickens declined to comment on Shapiro's reassignment. Dr. Terry Wright, the former chief of surgery at the hospital, replaced Shapiro as acting chief.
Bay Pines is the target of multiple federal inquiries prompted initially by repeated delays in surgeries. Investigators in Congress and the VA inspector general are looking at allegations of mismanagement and a flawed $472-million computer system.
In a memo to hospital staff Wednesday, Jenkins shared a bit of good news. He said a surprise visit last week by the nation's primary hospital accrediting agency had found nothing to endanger the hospital's accreditation later in the year.
The visit was prompted by three complaints about management and medical staff.
"At the exit conference," Jenkins wrote, "the surveyor reported that he was unable to substantiate any of the complaints or allegations."
But Mark Forstneger, spokesman for the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which conducted the visit, said Friday that no final decisions have been made.
Last May, the hospital ordered an outside review of mortalities associated with thoracic surgical cases. The investigation, led by Dr. Aaron S. Fink, the chief of surgery at the VA hospital in Atlanta, painted a troubling portrait of Shapiro.
Only three of 12 staff physicians considered the leadership in the department of surgery to be good or satisfactory, according to the confidential report obtained by the St. Petersburg Times.
Shapiro's critics used words like "overbearing," "king" and "power hungry" to describe him.
In an interview Wednesday, Shapiro blamed his predicament on "frank deceptions."
He said he believed he received negative marks because his critics submitted multiple questionnaires to investigators to manipulate the findings. He also said positive evaluations by doctors were kept from the investigative team.
Shapiro provided the Times with eight positive evaluations, even though the Fink report listed only three. Shapiro said the evaluations had been routed through his office and that his secretary had copied them before relaying them to the front office.
Shapiro also presented letters from colleagues attesting to his character and to his professional achievements.
Soon after being presented with the Fink investigation's results last fall, Shapiro appealed to Jenkins and Dr. Ralph DePalma, the national director of surgery at the VA, for a second visit in an effort to restore his reputation. Shapiro said he gave DePalma copies of the evaluations he says were missing from the survey.
"I will not let the matter end with this dishonest and career-threatening report as the last word," Shapiro wrote Jenkins recently.
DePalma agreed to honor Shapiro's request.
He is scheduled to return to Bay Pines at the end of the month.
