‘Abysmal’ patient care made Prisma Baptist ‘dangerous,’ OBGYN doctors allege in suit

This story has been updated to include a statement from Prisma Health.

Nine obstetricians and gynecologists who left Prisma Health’s network and joined Lexington Medical Center in October 2019 said they moved because of the “deteriorating” quality of care at Prisma Health’s facilities, according to a recent court filing.

South Carolina OB-GYN Associates alleged it was forced to leave Prisma Health because of persistent issues at Baptist Hospital since the hospital became part of a regional health care system. Prisma Health-Midlands poorly maintained its Baptist facilities and tools, hired inexperienced nurses and suffered from a consistent shortage of qualified physicians and staff — all of which resulted in “abysmal” conditions that put the group’s patients in danger, the Aug. 14 filing said.

S.C. OB-GYN aired its grievances in the court filing in response to a lawsuit Prisma Health Midlands filed against the doctors in July for breaking a 10-year lease agreement when they moved to Lexington Medical Center.

Prisma Health seeks $312,439.13 of back pay on the leases, as well as attorney’s fees, according to its suit. Although S.C. OB-GYN was an independent practice, it was housed on Prisma Health-Midlands’ campus, and the doctors used Baptist Hospital on Taylor Street for births.

Doctors James Stands, M. Tucker Laffitte III, Mark Salley, David Holladay, Thomas Giudice, Robert Grumbach, Rebecca Ridenhour, Christopher Hutchinson and Courtney Brooks had a collective 50-plus years of experience, hundreds of patients and delivered about 800 babies every year at Baptist Hospital.

The medical group said in its counterclaim that Prisma Health violated the terms of its own lease by not providing the group with a “reasonably adequate” hospital in which to practice safely. Prisma was formed in 2017 when Palmetto Health of the Midlands merged with the Greenville Hospital System.

“In recent years, the members of S.C. OB-GYN have, in horror, observed Baptist hospital recede into a third-tier facility plagued by astonishing lapses in patient care, cleanliness, and unsafe hospital conditions,” the filing said, “Conditions caused, on information and belief, by Prisma Health’s drive to cut costs, increase profits and pay senior executive exorbitant compensation.”

Among the allegations listed in the court filing are instances of life-threatening medical negligence and incompetence, which the suit says went unaddressed even after S.C. OB-GYN doctors raised concerns with top executives and hospital oversight committees.

A Prisma Health spokesperson said Saturday the health system does not comment on pending legal matters, but later sent a statement from Michael Bundy, CEO of the system’s Baptist Hospital:

“Patient safety is central to the trust we share with our patients at Prisma Health, and our commitment to providing safe, compassionate and effective care to all of our patients is unwavering,” the statement said. “Our rigorous quality assurance programs are the foundation of our commitment ... Prisma Health, like all hospitals, is subject to inspections by multiple federal, state and local regulatory agencies.”

Bundy noted that a national hospital accrediting group, The Joint Commission, conducted a survey of Prisma Health Baptist in early 2020 and found “zero condition-level deficiencies.”

“Baptist Hospital is rated a 4-star hospital by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the only 4-star hospital in Columbia; second only to Prisma Health Baptist Parkridge Hospital, which is the only 5-star hospital in Columbia,” he said.

The court filing by S.C. OB-GYN paints a more grim picture.

On several occasions, the doctors allege, Baptist Hospital turned away pregnant patients because the hospital didn’t have the staff to care for them. A patient needing emergency surgery for a high-risk ectopic pregnancy lost blood for more than an hour because no operating room nurses were available to assist doctors with the surgery, according to the filing.

Other times, nurses failed to check on patients for hours, communicate with doctors about patients’ conditions, or respond appropriately when medical problems arose, the suit said. In one case, the suit says, nurses went 45 minutes without monitoring a patient’s abnormal fetal heart rate. When the monitor was restarted, the fetus had a severely slow heart rate, the patient needed an emergency C-section, and the baby had to be transferred to Richland Memorial Hospital for treatment, according to the counterclaim. Doctors requested a formal review of the incident, but never received a response from hospital administration, the suit said.

S.C. OB-GYN doctors also struggled to provide the best, safest care to pregnant patients because of staffing issues, the filing said.

They “had numerous experiences where they had to deliver babies without scrub techs or sufficient staff assistance, and were forced to perform surgical procedures with students to assist,” according to the counterclaim.

Even when there were enough nurses to help, they were often ill-trained, and “had trouble identifying even basic instruments” requested by physicians during surgeries, the doctors allege in the suit.

In one instance, the claim says a doctor could not find anyone on the gynecology floor who knew the hospital’s protocol for dealing with diabetic patients after surgery. In another, an Operating Room nurse manager didn’t know vital information — who the patient’s doctor was, why she was there or what surgery was planned — about a patient in the hospital for a hysterectomy, according to the lawsuit.

Bundy, the hospital CEO, said physicians and staff are “completely dedicated to providing high quality, compassionate care delivered in a safe environment for not only our obstetrical patients but for all patients.”

The suit said patients of the OB-GYN practice complained about the hospital’s lack of cleanliness and about the unskilled nurses caring for them, according to the filing. Some patients even “vowed never again to be admitted to Baptist Hospital,” the suit said.

“Ultimately, the S.C. OB-GYN doctors concluded that Prisma Health-Baptist was not safe for patients to deliver their babies or receive out-patient or in-patient care,” the filing said. “In short, practicing medicine at Prisma Health-Baptist was dangerous.”

When the practice left Prisma Health-Midlands, S.C. OB-GYN notified the health system of its departure, the reasons for it, and requested to be let out of the leases, according to the suit. The doctors also provided another tenant to replace their practice and, when that didn’t work, Lexington Medical Center offered to take over the lease, which was also rejected, the suit said.

Prisma Health is represented by attorney Paul D. Harrill. S.C. OB-GYN is represented by Michael Tighe, Richard Detwiler, Matthew Jepertinger, and Yani Mouratev.

The OB-GYN practice’s move was significant, in part because the doctors joined Prisma Health’s main competitor in the Midlands, bolstering Lexington Medical Center’s growing footprint in the region.

Lexington Medical Center made a name for itself by investing in its robust and prolific maternity ward, which recently moved into two floors of the hospital’s new patient tower. In 2018, Lexington Medical Center delivered the second highest number of babies in South Carolina — about 3,300 babies, or nine per day, according to data from the hospital.

Only the former Greenville Health System delivered more babies. Greenville Memorial Hospital doctors delivered 3,866 babies in 2018, and the Midlands branch of the Prisma Health network delivered more than 7,000 in 2018, according to spokesperson Tammie Epps.

This story was originally published August 15, 2020 at 1:30 PM.