Maline Hazle
Record Searchlight
December 14, 2003 — 2:12 a.m.

Judge OKs RMC (Redding Medical Center) suits
Ruling will allow patients to sue hospital (Tenet), doctors

A Shasta County Superior Court judge ruled late Friday that Redding Medical Center and its parent corporation, Tenet Healthcare Corp., can be sued by some 1,200 patients who claim they are victims of unnecessary cardiac procedures.

Also named in the suits are Chae Hyun Moon, 56, Fidel Realyvasquez Jr., 55, and four other Redding doctors, who are accused of having performed those procedures in an effort to boost profits at RMC.

No criminal charges have been filed and a federal grand jury in Sacramento is considering evidence in that case.

Tenet announced Thursday that it is selling the 238-bed hospital, which had faced exclusion from Medicare and other federal health care programs as a result of a separate criminal probe into the allegations.

"The court has ruled that Tenet and RMC do have legal duties to these victims," Robert Simpson, a Redding attorney who represents about a third of the victims said Saturday.

"The doors to the courtroom and recovery are open to the plaintiffs and we are going to proceed to trial as rapidly as possible," he said.

But Tenet vice president of corporate communications Harry Anderson said Saturday that the company may appeal retired judge Jack Halpin's ruling.

"It's early," Anderson said. "The case has barely begun. . . . There will be many, many rulings before this goes to trial and I caution you not to put too much emphasis on this.

"It is not a decision of substance."

Simpson said he is hopeful that a trial could begin as early as late summer.

Ironically, when arguing Monday that Tenet should be dismissed from the suit, Tenet attorney Susan Marcella of Los Angeles claimed the Santa Barbara-based corporation and RMC are separate entities and that Tenet had no responsibility for any improprieties at the hospital.

"Tenet did not owe a duty to the plaintiffs," Marcella told Halpin on Monday. "Tenet Healthcare does not operate this hospital, does not run this hospital."

As part of a deal with the Office of Inspector General of the federal Health and Human Services Department, which had threatened to yank RMC's Medicare funding, Tenet agreed to sell the hospital by mid-2004. The buyer will not be subject to OIG sanctions, a spokeswoman for the federal agency said last week.

Simpson said that although Halpin ruled that some prosecution theories are not admissible, the plaintiffs "have essentially been allowed to proceed on all causes of action on all counts."

The counts against the doctors, Tenet and RMC include fraud and deceit, breach of fiduciary duty, battery, elder abuse and negligence, Halpin ruled.

The massive suit was sparked by word of a federal criminal investigation that became public Oct. 30, 2002, when FBI agents raided RMC and Moon's and Realyvasquez's Redding offices.