(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
/
Dr. Tom Stewart will continue his clinical practice at Mount Sinai.
| 1 |
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
.
