A Cut Too Deep
Several patients at a western hospital who had undergone obstetric and gynecological surgeries by "Dr. Bernie Odwalla" over an 18-month period suffered physical and emotional harm as the result of their operations. Patient complications and complaints caught the hospital's attention.
Fearing lawsuits, the hospital apologized to the patients and began its own investigation into their concerns. The hospital pulled Dr. Odwalla's cases for their peer review committee to evaluate. The peer review committee requested four other local obstetricians and gynecologists to review the patients' charts and determine the appropriateness of "Odwalla's techniques. Their report noted that Dr. Odwalla's complication rates were higher than normal and he had unintentionally cut internal organs beyond what was considered acceptable.
The hospital chose to consider this peer review a preliminary report and engaged an external peer review organization to get a second opinion. It did so to both validate the preliminary report and to avoid any competitive conflict of interest issues due to the competition for patients among the physicians.
The external review of the cases supported the preliminary findings, and also noted that the techniques used by Dr. Odwalla were dated and suggested that the hospital retrain Odwalla.