Miss. medical board suing for radiology records from VA
Mississippi's state Board of Medical Licensure is suing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) following the VA's refusal to release the names of patients potentionally affected by the alleged misconduct of a former radiologist at the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Medical Center in Jackson, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
The lawsuit involves allegations against radiologist Majid A. Khan, MD, who now works as the chief of the division of neuroradiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. A 2010 discrimination lawsuit won by three female radiologists at the Jackson VA hospital also included accusations of Khan improperly reading images or not reading all the images he claimed to have read.
The VA has absolved Khan of wrongdoing multiple times, saying that all radiologists sometimes miss abnormalities. The medical board said that in order to complete its investigation, it needs an unredacted copy of the 2010 lawsuit that includes the names of 58 VA patients. The names were blacked out in the court exhibit, according to the AP report.
The hospital did provide the board a report of a 2011 legal settlement of $87,500 paid to the survivors of Charles T. Smith, who sued after Smith died from colon and liver cancer in June 2007. Khan failed to diagnose the cancer, according to the AP.
The lawsuit was filed July 29 in Hinds County Chancery Court. The VA filed to move it into U.S. District Court in Jackson on Aug. 29.