Houston emergency physician Arlo
Weltge, MD, vice speaker of TMA’s House of Delegates, said the house has looked at the issue of “sham” or malicious peer review. Smaller com- munities in particular, Dr. Weltge says, have produced reports of situations “where hospitals have used this pro- cess to … act against physicians who are being perceived as troublesome because they’re raising quality issues in the hospital or are not necessarily liked well by the hospital.” “That can be economic credential- ing because they may be doing expen- sive procedures, or it can be person- ality issues,” Dr. Weltge said. “And in some cases [such as the Gomez case], it can be anticompetitive issues.” He says it’s important the peer
review process “has protections so people can feel comfortable in par- ticipating. But it also has to have the reasonable protections so it cannot be used by a hospital administrator who
just wants to get rid of a physician on the medical staff because he or she doesn’t like the physician, and uses the peer review protections for eco- nomic or personality reasons.”
THE IMPACT TMA advocates a fair, reasonable peer review system that improves stan- dards of patient care, and the asso- ciation denounces the use of reviews for penalizing physicians for business, financial, or administrative reasons (See “Fairness in Peer Review,” page 65). The decision the Supreme Court issued in May is a crucial step toward avoiding those scenarios. Dr. Weltge called the decision “in-
credibly important” because it sent a message to all health care institutions that although medical peer review is confidentiality-protected, institutions must use it in an appropriate way. “And it cannot be used in a mali- cious way or be used in a sham way …
to meet the needs of an institution or a personal vendetta,” he said. Now practicing at Houston Meth-
odist West, Dr. Gomez says he’s “doing well” but is still trying to rebuild lost trust and credibility after Memorial Hermann tarnished his reputation. “It’s very difficult to fight that and to not be harmed by that kind of at- tack,” he said. “Because as a doctor, all you have is your reputation. And once that’s been damaged, however unfairly, it’s hard to change perceptions.” Dr. Gomez says he’s grateful TMA’s support helped further his case with the Supreme Court. “I am so happy that I’m a member of the TMA, and I can honestly say that when I needed TMA at my most difficult period in my medical career, they came in and did the right thing,” he said. Dr. Pike says not all TMA members
realize the value of the Patient-Physi- cian Advocacy Committee or what
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68 TEXAS MEDICINE August 2015
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