Coast hospital hired a misdiagnosing doctor because he brought in money, lawsuit says
Singing River Health System hired Dr. Terry Millette despite warnings not to do so because they felt the money he’d bring in was “too good to pass up,” according to a deposition filed in pending lawsuits against the doctor and SRHS.
Millette’s hiring in 2011 came despite last-ditch appeals from three SRHS neurologists — Lennon Bowen, Christoper Karcher and William Evans — to refrain from hiring Millette because he was misdiagnosing patients with multiple sclerosis and “a multitude of other diagnoses,” Bowen said in a July 12 deposition.
“It wasn’t only multiple sclerosis,” Bowen said. “We raised concerns about (misdiagnosing patients for) what’s called myasthenia gravis, CIDP, most of the immunological neurological diagnoses that required infusion treatments, infusion therapies.”
The three neurologists said they had been complaining to top SRHS brass about “inappropriate diagnoses” by Millette, who was in private practice with hospital privileges, for over 10 years before they put their concerns in writing in May 2016.
Before that, their complaints had been verbal to current and former Chief Executive Officers Chis Anderson and Kevin Holland and other top administrators.
In addition, Bowen said he and the other neurologists were concerned Millette was allegedly over-prescribing medications for his patients.
Bowen said he and the other doctors heard about SRHS’ plans to hire Millette about a month before it occurred.
‘The smart thing to do’
Bowen took the concerns he and the others neurologists had about Millette’s hiring to SRHS Neurosciene Director Matt Walker due the “inappropriate diagnoses” as well as concerns about his prescription practices.
“And we expressed our concern that we just — that it was just something funny going on,” Lennon said. “There were just so many of them and most of them we had seen we didn’t agree they had those diseases.”
The neurologists had done their homework, too, sending patient information to independent doctors in Alabama to see if they agreed Millette was, in fact, diagnosing patients with diseases they never had. Those doctors, such as ones at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, agreed the patients had been misdiagnosed.
Within a day or two of their meeting to discourage Millette’s hiring, Bowen said, Walker came back to him to say SRHS would be hiring Millette “based on a review of the number of patients Millette had and the amount of infusions and infusion treatments he was making in his office.”
When pressed to explain further, Bowen said, “What Walker told me was that the potential revenue was very, very high and that from a business standpoint it seemed like the smart thing to do.”
The neurologists said they did not wish to work with Millette or allow him to to treat their patients “because we didn’t trust that if we left our patients to him that they would get the right treatment.”
The neurologists had concerns about the number of controlled substances Millette was prescribing as well.
“As a general rule, pain is usually involved with multiple sclerosis patients at a small percent,” Bowen said. “The vast majority of these patients were on extremely high doses of 1 to 2 narcotics, 1 to 2 amphetamines, and 1 to 2 benzodiazepines.”
All of the drugs mentioned are controlled substances. The doctors said they felt it was unfair for them to be put in a position where they would have to treat Millette’s patients when they didn’t agree with the diagnosis in the first place and wanted nothing to do with the prescriptions that were being written for them.
“We didn’t want to be on the hook, if he were gone, to fill those,” Bowen said.
A bad position
After Millette was no longer required to be on-call for patients, Bowen said it put him and the other neurologists in a bad position because they had more exposure to Millette’s patients.
When the neurologists repeatedly expressed their concerns, Bowen said, “They listened, but there wasn’t anything done about it, so we just felt like it was falling on deaf ears.”
In addition to reporting the issues to Anderson and Walker, Bowen said they took their complaints to others, including Chief Medical Officer Randy Roth, after Anderson left, and to Lauren St. Pe when he was moved into an administrative role.
Bowen said he and the other doctors repeatedly expressed their concerns to the person in charge at the time.
When they shared the information with Roth, Bowen said, “he seemed to understand.”
But a formal investigation didn’t follow.
Investigation launched
The neurologists felt they had no choice but to put their complaints in writing. In May 2016, they sent the letter to Holland, St. Pe, Roth and others.
“We were just really at wit’s end on what we had been seeing over time and with concern about patient safety and about what it meant for us to be involved in all this and not, you know, letting anybody know,” Bowen said. “And then after trying to get it through what we had been seeing ... and nobody really taking any formal action just to look into things, ...we figured we had to put something in writing finally to get the ball rolling... .”
The neurologists included a list of patients they felt had been misdiagnosed and described the list as “only the tip of the iceberg.”
It wasn’t until then that SRHS started an investigation and called on outsider reviewers to look at patients files to make an independent assessment.
The out-of-state reviewers agreed the patients had been misdiagnosed.
It didn’t come as a surprise to Bowen and the other two neurologists.
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They had other concerns as well.
Infusion therapy
The three neurologists also became alarmed by the large number of infusion treatments Millette was administering, which can require injecting toxic chemicals into a patient’s body.
The neurologists, Bowen said, would find out just how many infusions were administered when SRHS gave them charts periodically that kept track of productivity in infusion therapy and other matters.
The difference in the number of treatments Millette was giving compared to the other doctors was alarming, Bowen said.
In the majority of reports, Bowen said, it would show that he, Karcher and Evans had not given any infusions during a certain period while Millette’s numbers “were always over 100 in that infusion column.”
The concern again, Bowen said, was that patients who were not even sick were being subjected to treatments that could result in terrible side effects.
Again, Bowen said, they reported their concerns to SRHS officials, but nothing happened.
Bowen recalled a meeting during which he heard one of the SRHS officials talk about how Millette was generating $1.5 million a year just from his infusion treatments.
It seemed like SRHS was more concerned about the revenue the hospital system was generating from Millette’s business than patient care and safety, Bowen said.
SRHS cuts ties with Millette as a result of an investigation when they accepted his resignation in 2016.
A deposition represents only one side of a lawsuit.
The Sun Herald reached out to SRHS and attorneys for Millette for comment. SRHS said it could not comment on pending litigation and attorneys for Millette did not respond.
This story was originally published August 26, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
