Aimee French, former chief of staff at Corona Regional Medical Center, sued the hospital’s owner Aug. 26.
French claims Universal Health Services (UHS) management harmed the physicians’ care of patients. Her complaint names former CRMC Chief Executive Officer Sam Itani.
Her complaint alleges violation of state whistleblower protections, the False Claims Act, Business and Professions Code Section 2056(b), and the contract it had made with French.
French claims that Itani circumvented the hospital’s medical leadership in attempts to increase net profits, and retaliated against her when she reported her concerns.
“I love Corona Regional. If you are any of my patients, you know how I feel about that facility. I have given my life to that facility. I think that it has sat at the top of the hill, and sometimes we slip, but there’s always room to go back to the top,” French said at a press meeting Aug. 28.
“I do believe that the hospital has greatness in it, and can be there again. I just think there is room for significant improvement,” French said.
Follow Our Courts reached out to UHS’s press office for comment.
Allegations
Her lawsuit also claims that Itani allowed his daughter to assist multiple times in the operating room without credentials, and that hospital executives stonewalled her subsequent investigation.
French claims that Itani attempted to influence her investigations of disciplinary issues. In one case claimed in the complaint, French was alerted that a doctor opened 100 Medicare charts—none of which were for his own patients. French claims she was discouraged from investigating the case.
Itani pressured her to approve staff credentials for a doctor with significant red flags, but who would bring revenue into the hospital, French’s complaint claims. The complaint did not go into details.
Itani once pressured French into suspending and removing a physician from the medical staff without appropriate peer review, the complaint claims. French refused the direction.
Itani also instructed surgical staff to stop observing one another, a practice known as proctoring, French claims. The direction was made on consideration of revenue and not patient care, her complaint claims. The instruction circumvented the hospital’s medical committees.
CRMS attorneys in 2023 attempted to influence French’s testimony regarding a case brought by another physician against the hospital, she claims.
“(T)he common thread between all of these circumstances—and many more in which Mr. Itani imposed himself—is that bringing in new physicians could increase profits, and investigations, proctoring, and other procedures involve costs, whether direct or indirect, that reduce the bottom line,” French’s complaint said.
Retaliation claims
French discussed her concerns about Itani at the request of regional UHS CEO Brad Neet. Following her report, Itani became hostile, and resisted French’s appointment as CMO, French’s complaint says. Itani explicitly told French he wanted her out for “being disloyal,” the complaint says. On Oct. 31, 2022, Itani terminated French’s contracts.
She claims that hospital management offered her the role of chief medical officer in 2021, in a pretense for her to drop her existing contracts with them.
In March 2023, Itani told French that the CMO position was on hold.
Itani and UHS leadership used the pretense of work hostility between Itani and French to fire many long-standing staff and replace them with doctors who would be more likely to bring in revenue, the complaint said.
“Mr. Itani with the approval of the CRMC board and Universal executives schemed to decimate the hospital’s long-serving and loyal leadership staff, who had now been branded as disloyal because they were willing to stand up for patient safety and care, and replace them with loyal doctors who had questionable ethics and were willing to provide substandard patient care, thereby significantly reducing costs to the hospital and risks of liability from reporting exposure,” the complaint says.
Her complaint accuses Itani of threatening physicians who intended to run for leadership positions and threatening to terminate the contract of a physician Itani disagreed with on a patient care issue.
After French won reelection of chief of staff in November 2023, hospital administration cut its funding of the medical staff officer stipends in half, and requested new elections, the complaint reads.
Itani stepped down as CEO on June 14. He was replaced by interim CEO Morgan Topper.
On Aug. 5, the hospital terminated French’s physician services contract in what French described as a retaliation.
Hospital background
Universal Health Services bought Corona Regional Medical Center in 2004. Its previous owner was Vista Health System.
Within the Inland Empire, UHS also owns Inland Valley Hospital, Rancho Springs Hospital, and Temecula Hospital.
“This is a personal case for me and my firm. Many of us have come from families of physicians,” said French’s attorney, Richard McCune of McCune Law Group.
The purpose of the suit is to keep “corporate interference out of the patient, exam room, hospital bed, and to allow physicians to focus not only on patient care, but patient safety,” McCune said.
French graduated with a medical degree from University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine in 2006. She received a residency at the UCLA Olive View Internal Medicine Residency Program, then worked in a fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from 2009-2012.
She joined Corona Regional Medical Center in 2014. She has been the director of the Corona Rehabilitation Medical Center since December 2014, was the bloodless-medicine medical director from March 2014 to December 2017, was critical care committee chair from December 2014 to November 2022, and clinical site director since July 2019.
She was elected chief of staff by hospital physicians in 2022. She also runs her own practice, called Breathe Clinic, which helps staff Corona Regional Medical Center.
University Health Services
French’s complaint says that the corporatization of health care threatens patient safety.
University Health Services is a Fortune 500, publicly traded company that posts the value of its shares on its website.
It currently sits at a high of $236 a share, with 163,000 shares on the market. Its value has doubled in the last year. In 2023, it had annual revenues of $14.3 billion. It employs 96,700 workers across 27 inpatient acute care hospitals, 333 inpatient behavioral health facilities and over 40 outpatient facilities.
“For years, patient advocates have raised warnings about the dangers of Wall Street corporations uprooting the traditional physician-patient relationship, which was rooted on what was best for the patient, to be replaced by Wall Street’s focus on profits, executive pay and shareholder returns,” French’s complaint says.
In 2020, UHS entered into a settlement with the United States Department of Justice. The settlement admitted to overcharging Medicare and Medi-Cal.
Attorneys Richard McCune, Michele Vercoski, Gavin Kassel and Yasmin Younessi of McCune Law Group represent French.
Read the complaint here.
