Previously hushed-up in-fighting among doctors at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital bubbled up into the public realm this week.
Two of its top doctors just filed a federal lawsuit against the high-profile Miami hospital and its managers for what they claim is an attempt to drive them out of the famed namesake of golf great Jack Nicklaus, Florida’s only free-standing pediatric trauma center.
In their complaint, doctors Anselmo Cepero and Ana Paredes – both of them authorities in the field of kidney diseases in children – claim they have been the targets of retaliation from Miami Children’s Health System CEO Narendra Kini because of their refusal to join Nicklaus’ in-house medical group, Pediatric Specialty Group.
Pediatric Specialty Group, the lawsuit claims, was formed last year to create a doctors’ monopoly.
Quickly, the group recruited physicians who’d been working at the hospital for years.
“(Pediatric Specialty Group) viewed its offer to (doctors) as one they should not refuse,” the lawsuit reads.
Cepero and Paredes refused to join, and their referrals mysteriously dried up, the lawsuit claims.
What’s more, the plaintiffs say, one of their partners changed camp and ended up allegedly taking confidential patient information to Pediatric Specialty Group.
The plaintiffs’ attorney didn’t return calls for comment.
When asked if its doctors shouldn’t be focused on fighting for sick and dying children rather than one another over business interests, hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Caminas said institution officials can’t comment on pending legal matters.
