Unnessary Stents

The Baltimore Sun (8/29, Bishop) reported, "After a complaint last year that star cardiologist Mark Midei was placing stents in the arteries of patients who didn't need them," St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, MD, "removed him from duty, reviewed thousands of medical records and sent letters to nearly 600 people whose stents appeared unnecessary, telling them to go see a doctor." But "now that the lawyers have arrived, bearing the threat of hundreds of lawsuits, some say the message has changed. Even as some St. Joseph employees continue to suggest wrongdoing - including its chief of cardiology, who has told at least two patients that his former colleague falsified their records - the hospital's attorneys appear to be girding for a fight."