December 21, 2004: Tenet Healthcare Corp. Settles Over Allegations That Its Doctors Performed Unnecessary Heart Surgery on Patients

Tenet Healthcare Corp. settles with more than 769 patients over allegations that one of its hospitals, Redding Medical Center in California, performed hundreds of unnecessary operations on its patients between 1992 and 2002. A 2002 FBI affidavit alleged that perhaps as many as 50 percent of the heart surgeries and tests performed by doctors at the hospital were not necessary. Of those, as many as a quarter did not even involve patients who had serious heart issues. According to Russell Reiner, the attorney who represented about half the patients, at least 20 patients died after undergoing unnecessary heart surgery at the hospital, while other patients suffered strokes, brain damage, or amputations. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Tenet will pay the former patients $395 million. [San Francisco Chronicle, 12/22/2004]