MEDICAL BACK-SCRATCHING

(TORONTO) Star investigation: Mt. Sinai’s top doctor quits amid ORNGE scandal

Dr. Tom Stewart (MD U.OTTAWA 1988) FRCPC( Int.Med) resigns as hospital announces it will now disclose publicly all third-party contracts to increase transparency following probe into contract with ORNGE founder Suunnybrook ER Dr.Chris Mazza.MD(Tor. 1989) FRCPC -ER

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Dr. Tom Stewart will continue his clinical practice at Mount Sinai.

By: Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter, Published on Thu Feb 28 2013

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Mount Sinai’s top doctor has quit amid revelations his Toronto hospital paid ORNGE founder Chris Mazza $256,000 in public money — with no proof Mazza did some of the work for which he was paid.

“We regret this unfortunate situation,” Mount Sinai president Joseph Mapa said in a statement to the Star on Wednesday. He sent an internal note to hospital colleagues saying it was with a “heavy heart” he accepted Dr. Tom Stewart’s resignation as physician-in-chief and director of the medical/surgical intensive care unit.

Stewart will continue his clinical practice at Mount Sinai.

The hospital has also announced it will now disclose publicly all third-party contracts to increase transparency.

As part of its investigation into the ORNGE air ambulance service, the Star earlier reported that Mazza and Stewart, who are friends, had an unusual relationship. Each had a sort of consulting contract with the other’s publicly funded agency.

ORNGE paid Mount Sinai’s Stewart roughly $75,000 annually over seven years (a total of $436,000) to advise Mazza and ORNGE on medical issues — work that the air ambulance firm’s new managers said they could not confirm was done because the relationship was primarily between Mazza and Stewart.

Over a similar time period, Mount Sinai paid Mazza $256,000. Both men were already well compensated by their own agencies: Mazza earned $1.9 million in his last year at ORNGE and Mount Sinai paid Stewart $607,000 in salary and benefits in 2011.

After the Star’s initial stories, Mount Sinai began a review, which was recently completed. According to the hospital, it found that Mount Sinai had two separate contracts with ORNGE president Mazza, both “under the auspices” of Stewart.

First, between 2006 and 2008, the hospital paid Mazza $108,000 “for providing a variety of clinical and advisory services to the intensive care unit (at Mount Sinai),” according to a hospital statement. The hospital said “these services were in fact rendered.”

Secondly, between 2009 and 2011, Mount Sinai paid Mazza $148,000 “for a variety of advisory services to the critical care response team and the department of medicine.” The hospital’s review “concluded that there was no evidence that the full services for these payments were in fact rendered.”

Mount Sinai said in its release that "Dr. Stewart acknowledged that this was an error in judgment on his part." Stewart's lawyer told the Star that Stewart "looks forward to concentrating full time on his clinical work."

Mount Sinai will not release the report and has not said whether it will seek from Mazza any of the monies paid to him. The hospital said the review has provided recommendations “designed to ensure accountability.” The hospital said it will begin disclosing annually all third-party relationships “to enhance oversight of outside contracts.”

According to an earlier statement from Stewart, he met Mazza in 2003 when both doctors “led the effort against the SARS outbreak.” They became friends and, according to a former colleague of Mazza’s, Stewart was very supportive when Mazza lost his son in 2006 in a skiing accident in Ontario.

Mazza’s expense reports show the two men occasionally dined together, and parking receipts show Mazza occasionally visited Stewart at Mount Sinai hospital.

That both men had contracts with the other’s agency was not generally known at either ORNGE or the hospital.

At Mount Sinai, Dr. Gary Newton, head of cardiology, has been appointed as interim physician-in-chief and other managers will fill Stewart’s other role as director of the medical/surgical intensive care unit.

Kevin Donovan can be reached at kdonovan@thestar.ca or 416-312-3503 .