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Doctors Say Dismissals, Race Linked

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI

esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

Published: December 3, 2008

TAMPA - Nine physicians have filed lawsuits against a Pasco County hospital, alleging they lost their privileges to practice there because of their race.

The doctors, eight of whom listed specialties in cardiology, are of Arab, Indian or Hispanic descent, according to lawsuits filed by lawyer Barry Cohen.

The suits, filed in U.S. District Court, name Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point and its parent, HCA Inc., as defendants.

The suits allege HCA launched "selective reviews of certain interventional cardiology programs staffed with a large number of minority physicians with ethnic characteristics, including the interventional cardiology program at" Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, which is in Hudson.

A presentation was made on Dec. 4, 2004, to the hospital's trustees. Days later, the nine physicians had their privileges suspended for reasons unrelated to quality of care, the doctors allege.

Kurt Conover, a spokesman for Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, said the hospital's actions stemmed from a 2004 review, by an outside party, of the hospital's catheterization lab.

Cohen would not comment on the lawsuits or say whether any of the plaintiffs had their privileges reinstated. However, the hospital's online physician's directory lists all nine doctors as being in the cardiology department.

The doctors who filed the lawsuits are Thomas M. Matthews, Dipak Parekh, Gopal Chalavary, Sudhir Agarwal, Joseph Idicula, Rene Eduardo Kunhardt, Mahmoud A. Nimer, Charles Saniour and Adel Eldin.

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