Apathologist whose employment was terminated following critical remarks he made about a hospital at a staff meeting could not succeed on a claim that he was discharged in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment rights, a federal appeals court affirmed May 13 (Shenoy v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, 4th Cir., No. 12-1786). In an unpublished opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that B. Vittal Shenoy, M.D., was not speaking as a private citizen when he criticized the administration of a Carolinas Healthcare System (CHS) hospital for what he viewed as systemic failures that led to a large number of sentinel events. The court also affirmed summary judgment for CHS and Carolinas Pathology Group (CPG) on Shenoy’s claims for tortious interference with contract and False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation. Shenoy, a pathologist, was employed by CPG and was the medical director of the pathology laboratory at Carolinas Medical Center-Pineville (CMC-Pineville). He voluntarily took on a leading role on CMC-Pineville’s peer review committee, the medical staff quality improvement committee, and the sentinel events committee. In March 2005, Shenoy spoke up at a medical staff quality improvement committee meeting, criticizing CMC-Pineville’s administration for the hospital’s high number of sentinel…
