A physician partner at a Virginia surgery center is suing the facility for trying to block his plans to open a competing center in the same area.

In a lawsuit alleging breach of contract and violation of federal arbitration rules, ophthalmologist Glenn C. Campbell, MD, claims that Williamsburg, Va.-based Riverside Doctors Surgery Center has "undertaken a coordinated effort to block the opening" of his Advanced Vision Surgery Center. Dr. Campbell also charges that Riverside is attempting to "exert control over various healthcare services" in the Virginia peninsula area.

At the center of the case is the non-compete clause included in a 2004 operating agreement between Riverside and a group of physician partners, including Dr. Campbell, to operate Riverside Doctors Surgery Center. Signing the agreement prevented Dr. Campbell and the center's other physician-partners from opening competing businesses in Williamsburg as well as nearby James City and York.

However, by moving forward with plans to open Riverside Doctors Hospital next year, the defendants have "announced their intention to violate the non-compete provision [of the 2004 operating agreement]," says attorney Michael J. Lockerby, who is representing Dr. Campbell.

Mr. Lockerby notes that the non-compete clause also prohibits Riverside and its affiliates from performing outpatient procedures within the peninsula service area, with the exception of outpatient surgeries done at Riverside facilities already in existence when the operating agreement was signed in 2004. "Obviously, the as-yet-unopened Riverside Doctors Hospital Williamsburg is not among such 'existing facilities.'"

In addition, one of the Riverside affiliates has already violated the operating agreement's arbitration provision by filing a lawsuit against Dr. Campbell in state court, says Mr. Lockerby, calling the suit "part of a coordinated anti-competitive effort on the part of the Riverside defendants to preserve their market share and insulate themselves from competition from the Advanced Vision Surgery Center."

Dr. Campbell, however, claims that he became unhappy with the patient care at Doctors Surgery Center and sought to open his own eye surgery center in Williamsburg. He filed an application for a certificate of public need to open the outpatient center, citing a 12% growth in the Virginia peninsula between 2000 and 2010 among the reasons why his proposed facility would be necessary. Dr. Campbell's application also claims that vitreoretinal surgical services are currently "unavailable within the planning district," and that "patients requiring vitreoretinal surgical care must travel to Richmond or Norfolk to receive the care they need."

In an April 2012 letter to Virginia State Health Commissioner Karen Remley, MD, MBA, FAAP, Riverside describes Dr. Campbell's statement regarding a lack of available vitreoretinal care in the area as "patently untrue," and argues that the area's population growth was just 4.9% in the timeframe specified by Dr. Campbell. The letter maintains that Riverside's Hampton (Va.) Surgery Center has offered vitreoretinal services since 2007, and notes that 2 ophthalmologists perform 25 to 30 such cases each month at the Hampton facility.

Peter Glagola, spokesperson for Riverside, says Riverside opposes Dr. Campbell's request for 2 reasons. First, the area doesn't need more ORs. "When Riverside Doctors Hospital opens in 2013, there will be 48 general purpose operating rooms in [the local planning district]," he sys, noting that the area won't need that many ORs until 2017. Second, "the [certificate of need] request narrative makes a false representation of facts and is inconsistent with the State Medical Facilities Plan."

Mark McGraw