Texas hospital declines award after lawsuits filed over botched surgeries

Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano (Texas) plans to decline a national healthcare quality award after multiple lawsuits were filed by former patients alleging that the hospital knowingly allowed a surgeon to operate while under the influence of alcohol and/or cocaine, the Dallas Business Journal reports. Baylor Plano was to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award at a ceremony in April in Baltimore, but a statement released last week by the Baylor Health Care System said the hospital is working to address the allegations made in the lawsuits.

 

Baylor’s decision to decline the award was the result of lawsuits from patients claiming they were seriously injured by neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, who is accused of crippling and killing patients and practicing under the influence of drugs. Duntsch was affiliated with the hospital for nine months starting in July 2011. One lawsuit claims Duntsch performed an unnecessary operation on a patient and operated on the wrong body part, while another patient bled to death and another was rendered a quadriplegic, the Business Journal reports.