More Emory Corruption

Dr. Sam Newcom is now under a gag order so he can no longer talk about what he learned about the corruption at Emory. Before this gag order he did send this particular email to another whistle blower which I was able to get a hold of.

I am sorry to hear about the orchestrated effort to discredit you that is being carried out by the EmoryUniversity President's office. It does not surprise me that you have heard that unsubstantiated statements, and, in fact, lies have been stated to professors by the Vice President and General Counsel. I assume this man is sworn to the Bar and, therefore, eligible to be disbarred if there is perjury ormisconduct in a federal action.

With respect to character assassination, in my own case, the most clear-cut example is that of Ken Walkerand Juha Kokko, who were my supervisors at Grady Memorial Hospital. I insisted on delivering the same level of care at Grady as I had delivered at the University of Southern California, the University of California, San Francisco, and the Oregon Health Sciences University. Drs. Walker and Kokko said that the patients at Grady did not deserve that level of care The housestaff and medical students indicated that Drs. Walker and Kokko attempted to demean my credentials and style behind my back. The student physicians reported quotations from Drs. Kokko and Walker that indicated bigotry, bias, and juvenile thought. Some of these statements were made directly to me by Drs. Walker and Kokko.

I was offered money from a National Institutes of Health grant (RO1 CA55525) in return for subjecting some Grady patients to inappropriate care. When I refused, Juha Kokko asked Dean Jeffrey Houpt to remove me from Grady because "the overwhelming majority of students and house staff do not like him". To support his claim, Dr. Kokko submitted six evaluations inwhich house staff made a negative comment, e.g. "rounds were sometimes too long."

At that time, I had served as the teacher and attending physician for over 300 house staff. Dr.Walker's office had apparently destroyed most of the evaluations, many of which I had seen at faculty orientations, and were excellent. Only the six evaluations contained any negative comment of which I was aware. I had in my possession 25 evaluations stating that I was an excellent attending physician and teacher. I submitted these evaluations to Dean Houpt and met with the committee he had designated including then Dermatology Chairman, Tom Lawley.

A charge of fraud and intentional character assassination of a tenured Emory University faculty member was brought against Juha Kokko. Dr. Kokko was found guilty and ordered to take a one year sabbatical. He announced the sabbatical at a School wide faculty meeting which you attended. However, the sabbatical did not occur and, shortly thereafter, Dean Houpt left. I was transferred to the V.A. as a part-time federal employee who could be terminated with no effort.

Fortunately, my performance at the V.A. led the supervisor, Manuel Martinez-Maldonado, to offer me a full-time federal position, a raise, and a full Professorship. However, there was sustained patient-care and teaching deterioration at Grady and cut-backs at the V.A., orchestrated by the new Columbia/HCA Emory contract.

This contract focused Emory attention and money on garnering more private wealthy patients from the Northside and abandonment of the poor blacks from the southside that Emory was responsible for at Grady and the V.A. There were clear violations of the 30-year Emory-Grady contract and the Emory-V.A. contract. I felt compelled to bring these deteriorating patient care problems and negligent patient deaths to President Chace's attention. When I did so I was immediately fired.

The performance of the Emory University administration, including the Board of Trustees, hasbeen well documented in the press including there refusal to care for some veterans at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The Grady Hospital corruption scandal and budgetary oversights have also been well covered including the proposal of theEmory-Grady committee to withhold medications from "zero" card patients. This proposal, as you know, was predicted by their own consultants to result in the death or severe harm to 6500 patients within 60 days.

The intense lobbying by Emory University (Joe Tanner & Associates) to defeat the proposal (SR 416) for a Grady Oversight Committee indicates the expense and length at which Emory University administration will proceed to avoid the proper care of patients at Grady Memorial Hospital.The terminations of Juha Kokko, Manuel Martinez-Maldonado, Laurence Harker (former Head of my Division) and Bailey Francis (former Chief of Staff at the Atlanta VAMC) indicate the recognition by Emory University and the U.S. Veterans Affairs thatgreat wrong has been done here to the patients and the Emory University School of Medicine trainees.

Samuel R. Newcom, M.D.

For an updated summary of the entire fiasco, please go to this link. Please go to the link to see the recommendations my colleagues have enumerated for fixing Grady Hospital.