Female doctor need not take test of fitness to keep her job

Bias case against boss, hospital

A female neurosurgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital who is suing the chief of neurosurgery for sex discrimination won a victory this week when a federal court ruled that she need not undergo a medical evaluation to gauge her fitness to stay at the hospital.

Dr. Sagun Tuli had argued in court papers that the evaluation ordered by the hospital's credentials committee was "the culmination of years of disparate treatment, discrimination, and retaliation she has experienced" from Dr. Arthur L. Day, the chief of neurosurgery and a physician with a national reputation. She sued him and the hospital in federal court in December.

US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner ruled Monday from the bench that Tuli could make a strong case that "inappropriate animus" played a role in the committee's order last fall that she undergo an evaluation or she probably would not be allowed to practice at Brigham and Women's after April 15.

The committee had cited staff complaints about Tuli as at least part of the rationale for the evaluation. But in granting Tuli's request for a court order to block the evaluation, Gertner said the plaintiff had raised troubling questions about "Dr. Day's role as the source of the information about her 'problems' [and] about Dr. Day's role in permitting, even encouraging, staff mistreatment of her," according to a transcript of the court hearing.

Gertner encouraged Tuli and the defendants to settle the dispute through mediation but tentatively scheduled the trial to start in January.

Tuli's lawyer, Margaret M. Pinkham, said she was aware of no comparable US case in which a federal or state judge had blocked a credentialing committee from taking action concerning a doctor.

"Courts are very unwilling to interfere in the peer-review process," she said, "but this is a very unique case."

In issuing her ruling, Gertner rejected a May 1 recommendation by US Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings, who said the credentialing committee's required evaluation was reasonable and not discriminatory.

Brigham and Women's said in a statement late yesterday that hospital officials respected Gertner's ruling, but "are disappointed that she apparently has decided not to adopt the recommendation of Judge Collings."

Tuli, who has been at the hospital since 2000, has accused Day in court papers of fostering an "old boys' network" at the hospital. She alleged that Day and the hospital denied her promotions while giving more favorable treatment to male colleagues with less experience.

A sworn statement made by a nurse as part of the lawsuit also alleged that Day routinely referred to female colleagues as girls and downloaded sexually explicit drawings from the Kama Sutra, a traditional Indian guide to sex, onto Tuli's handheld computer.

Day vigorously denied the allegations in a statement issued by the hospital in March and said he was "deeply saddened to hear these falsehoods."

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.