Cape Cod Hospital suspends privileges for cardiologist Richard Zelman, lawsuit pending

HYANNIS — Cape Cod Hospital medical staff has suspended the privileges of cardiologist Richard Zelman, who filed a lawsuit against Cape Cod Healthcare on Dec. 6 alleging he was fired for blowing the whistle on unethical practices in the hospital.

Zelman’s employment at Cape Cod Hospital was terminated on Sept. 30, though he retained the ability to perform medical procedures in the hospital as part of his private practice.

However, he was informed Wednesday evening that those privileges had been suspended, he said in an interview with the Times on Thursday.

Zelman, 64, is an interventional cardiologist and surgeon who has been affiliated with Cape Cod Hospital since 1990. He was hired full-time in 2006 and became the medical director of the hospital’s Heart and Vascular Institute in 2018.

“I wasn’t allowed to come in and care for the three critical patients I had done procedures on that very morning,” Zelman said.

Cape Cod Healthcare, based in Hyannis, operates two acute care hospitals, Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital, along with a homecare and hospice agency, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility, an assisted living facility and a number of health programs. The nonprofit employees 450 physicians, according to its website.

Zelman’s privileges were suspended by the hospital’s medical staff, not by the hospital itself or Cape Cod Healthcare CEO Michael Lauf, according to a statement from Cape Cod Healthcare emailed to the Times on Thursday.

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“While Dr. Zelman likely will characterize this latest development as further retaliation against him, the facts will show that it has been Dr. Zelman’s own actions that gave rise to the decisions which he seeks to legally challenge,” according to the statement.

Zelman told the Times on Thursday that the hospital chose to suspend his privileges after a chain of events which began with him sending a letter to Chief Medical Officer Bill Agel on Sept. 20, a few days before his employment was set to be terminated. The letter contained recommendations for physicians who would take over some of Zelman's responsibilities.

Zelman said some of the things he suggested were to have physicians be proctored for procedures they had not conducted recently. Zelman did not provide a copy of the letter to the Times citing advice from his legal team, since the letter contained names of specific physicians at the hospital, he said.

On Sept. 29, Zelman received an offer from Cape Cod Healthcare that said he could continue his employment if he publicly endorsed the hospital’s cardiac surgery services. After he refused, a physician conduct review commenced, which brought forward a complaint against Zelman, he said. That, in turn, prompted a committee meeting that led to Zelman’s privileges at the hospital being suspended, according to Zelman.

Zelman's privileges revoked same day he operated on three patients

Zelman performed three catheter valve replacement procedures at Cape Cod Hospital Wednesday morning. Because his privileges were suspended Wednesday evening, he said he was unable to follow through with his patients, who expected him to be with them until they were discharged, he said.

Also, he was unable to attend a procedure Thursday morning at the hospital due to the suspension, which he was the only doctor at the hospital credentialed to do, he said.

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“I’m very saddened for the people of Cape Cod, for the community that we live in, this is our program, this is our hospital, we should have had a system in place that could deliver this care safely well into this current decade, but it’s deteriorated over the last five years, and they’re trying to silence me at any cost,” said Zelman.

Zelman retains privileges at Beth Israel Deaconess Plymouth and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston. He is also applying for privileges at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

There was no next court date in the pending lawsuit in Barnstable Superior Court as of Friday.

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Contact Asad Jung at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @asadjungcct.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod Hospital cardiologist's privileges change, lawsuit pending