Officials say there is no conflict in hiring the brother-in-law of the medical school's interim dean for a surgery post.
By LISA GREENE
Published June 12, 2004
A prominent doctor joining the University of South Florida College of Medicine has close ties to the school: He's the brother-in-law of the interim dean.
The doctor, Charles N. Paidas, is director of pediatric trauma at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital, sometimes ranked as the best hospital in the nation.
He also is associate professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University.
USF offered Paidas a job after his brother-in-law brought up his name. The school bypassed its usual search process.
But USF skipped the search because Tampa General Hospital badly needs a pediatric surgeon, not because of Paidas' relationship to the dean, Ron Hytoff, Tampa General president and CEO, said Friday.
"Pediatric surgeons are rare, and we're very fortunate to become associated with Dr. Paidas," said Hytoff, who also called Paidas "top quality."
Paidas is married to the sister of Dr. Robert J. Belsole, interim medical school dean and interim vice president of the health sciences center. Did Paidas get any preferential treatment because he's Belsole's brother-in-law?
"I would doubt it," Belsole said. "He has better credentials than I have."
Paidas' hiring is the latest in an odd chain of events that has become public at the medical school over the past week.
Two prominent department chairs have left the school, and its anesthesiology residency program has been put on probation by an accrediting agency. Belsole's predecessor was told to resign last fall after asking faculty members to donate to a political campaign.
Paidas began looking for a job because he wants to lead a pediatric surgery program, he said. His supervisor at Johns Hopkins is unlikely to leave, giving Paidas no room to move up, he said.
"It was that commitment to the creation of a program in children's surgical services that attracted me to come to Tampa," Paidas said.
Paidas also said he was impressed with the working relationship between USF and Tampa General.
In Baltimore, Paidas was in the news last year as the doctor in charge of an 18-year-old girl who died in 2001 after medical errors at Johns Hopkins.
The girl, who was being treated for burns, became severely dehydrated, and because of a series of staff errors that no one noticed in time her heart failed. The Baltimore Sun wrote a lengthy series of stories that were a finalist in this year's Pulitzer Prize journalism competition.
The girl's mother told the Sun she didn't blame the doctors, and the family asked Paidas to help start a safety program in their daughter's memory. Paidas, who pointed out that the girl's death was more than three years ago, said it was unrelated to his departure.
"As tragic as it was, there was a tremendous amount of good that came out of it," Paidas said.
At USF, Paidas will begin as a visiting faculty member, Belsole said. He will be paid about $300,000 a year from USF, most of which will be guaranteed by Tampa General, Belsole said.
Tampa General has been relying on community pediatric surgeons who also work elsewhere, Hytoff said. He said that could create problems if those surgeons already had a trauma case at another facility.
Tampa General needs a top-notch surgeon leading a program of its own, Hytoff said, especially because it is one of the state's six Level I trauma centers, designated for the most serious emergencies.
Belsole and Hytoff said the hiring of Paidas was a joint decision between USF and Tampa General. Belsole said he didn't make the decision.
Belsole's involvement was at the beginning of the process, when he mentioned Paidas as a good person to talk to for advice on how the program should work, Paidas and Belsole said. He first visited as a consultant, then later became a candidate.
Hytoff could not recall seeing any candidate but Paidas. USF did talk to a few other candidates about the job, Belsole said, but they still were finishing their pediatric surgery training and didn't have qualifications close to Paidas'.
"The chances of getting a pediatric surgeon at that level are slim and none," Belsole said.
If the pediatric surgery program proves a success, USF then will conduct a search for a permanent faculty member for the job, even though Paidas already is here. Belsole said a committee will decide who should get the job, and that he will not be involved.
In the new job, Paidas said, he plans "to be a team player, bridging both the university and Tampa General."
The program will focus on childhood injuries, children's tumors, critically ill and injured children, and neonatal surgery, Paidas said. Eventually, he wants to offer a full range of pediatric transplant surgeries.
- Times staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
