Former surgeon claims retaliation

A former UNM Hospital surgeon filed a lawsuit against the University for an alleged breach of contract and violation of the NM Whistleblower Act.

Anne Marie Wallace filed a lawsuit in N.M. District Court alleging that UNMH Chairman of Surgery John Russell fired Wallace for reporting colleagues’ “substandard patient care,” the lawsuit states. Russell was among the surgeons Wallace cited, and the lawsuit lists the UNM Regents, Russell and Ashwani Rajput, chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology, as defendants.

UNM interim legal counsel Lee Peifer did not return phone calls Monday, but told the Albuquerque Journal the University “adamantly denies there’s any connection between the personnel action and any complaints she may or may not have made.”

The lawsuit also alleges Rajput falsified medical records and withdrew medical care without patient consent.

Wallace voiced her concerns to key hospital and cancer center administrators, the lawsuit states. As a result, Wallace “experienced immediate and harsh retaliation by the defendants” for reporting Rajput’s misconduct, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit states he made “threatening” comments in front of Wallace, such as “People better watch out. They’re going to learn how important I am.”

In June 2010, Russell notified Wallace he was going to make “dramatic and unwarranted” changes to her contract with UNMH, according to the lawsuit. These proposed changes included a 15 percent decrease in salary … “an increase in her clinical workload to include all breast referrals within the entire UNM system” and “the removal of her title and position at the (Cancer Research and Treatment Center) in the breast program she had helped build from its genesis,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit contends that Wallace worked to establish the High Risk Screening Program for breast diseases at CRTC.

Wallace met with Russell and Cheryl Willman, director and CEO of the CRTC, on June 24 to dispute the terms of her contract, according to the lawsuit. Russell and Tillman “agreed to make only the most minor of modifications, leaving the most retaliatory and offensive provisions intact,” the lawsuit states.

Wallace refused to sign the contract and was placed on administrative leave July 22, 2010, and she was terminated on August 19 or 20, according to the lawsuit.

Wallace, who was employed by UNM from September 2004 to July 2010, worked as a surgeon in the oncology department. She was on the subcommittee chair of the Working Group Committee to review and improve breast cancer treatment and was the associate director of the Breast Multidisciplinary Program at the Cancer Research and Treatment Center, among other duties.

Her myriad responsibilities at UNMH “put Dr. Wallace in the position of being duty-bound by medical ethics to confront incidents of surgical care of breast cancer patients that fell beneath accepted standards of care,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit states that hospital administrators never seriously looked into Wallace’s allegations against Russell. The lawsuit lists at least four administrators who were allegedly approached with information regarding Russell’s “substandard outcomes, disregard for patient care and unprofessional conduct.”