RETALIATION? George A. Winch, Jr., MD, FACOG, says he was never given the chance to defend himself against hearsay allegations.

A Nevada obstetrician is claiming that a hospital where he'd practiced for years was simply out to get him when it revoked his privileges both at the hospital and at the surgery center the hospital would later acquire.

George A. Winch, Jr., MD, FACOG, is suing Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital (NNRH) in Elko, Nev., saying, among other things, that it engaged in a campaign to suspend and revoke his privileges based on "pre-textual, wrongful and false grounds," and that it "acted with an improper and evil motive amounting to malice."

Dr. Winch has been a board-certified OB/GYN in Nevada since 1993 and still practices at the Elko Women's Health Center, which he established in 1994, and which is also a plaintiff in the suit. The complaint notes that in 2001 he began performing some hysterectomies at the Great Basin Surgical Center, also in Elko, "because the costs to the patient were substantially less than if the procedure was performed at NNRH."

The complaint goes on to say that the hospital bought the Great Basin center last July, and "has effectively revoked Dr. Winch's clinical surgical privileges in Elko."

Dr. Winch had had occasional run-ins with the hospital dating back to at least 2008, according to news reports. That year he accused hospital personnel of ignoring a medically necessary induction of labor and, in another incident, was himself accused of refusing to come to the hospital, while on call, to treat a patient in labor. In 2009, according to reports, he told a nurse that a suture provided by the hospital had disintegrated and that the hospital should absorb all related costs. A few days later, says the complaint, he was suspended for "actions which were disruptive of the operations of the hospital and (which) diminished the ability of others to provide quality of care."

A settlement was reached, and he returned to the staff, but in 2013, the hospital launched an investigation based on alleged "inappropriate behavior" by Dr. Winch, and in 2014, the hospital again revoked his privileges, accusing him of abandoning a patient in the OR and of engaging in "compulsive/histrionic/narcissistic behavior directly affecting patient care/well-being." Dr. Winch says he was judged "solely upon hearsay" and that he wasn't given the chance to review the allegations against him or defend himself.

Reached for comment, Rick Palagi, CEO of Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital, said the hospital will file a response to the lawsuit but that "it would be inappropriate to comment further."

Jim Burger