Word: billig
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Billig's substandard performance at Bethesda should have come as no surprise. Before joining the staff there, he had been fired from two previous jobs, one at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, N.J., in 1980, and another with a Pittsburgh physicians' group in 1982. When he arrived at Bethesda the following year, he had not performed open-heart surgery in six years. Nonetheless, the Navy permitted him to undertake such operations after only six months of retraining. Last month Monmouth's chairman of surgery, Dr. Cyril Arvanitis, revealed that he had begun to suspect Billig after examining weekly reports...
Bethesda's then vice commanding officer, Captain Leon Hodges, learned of Billig's Monmouth troubles when an unusual circumstance forced the surgeon to come forward. According to Billig, his ex-wife was demanding $5,000 in exchange for silence about the firing. Hodges began an investigation. When he inquired about Billig's competence, a junior cardiologist volunteered that the chief surgeon had "trouble clamping small vessels." Hodges then asked if the young doctor would let Billig operate on his mother or father. The answer...
...could such a man have found his way to the hospital of Presidents? The military health care system in general seems to be at fault. Eleven Navy officers have so far been censured or face disciplinary action in the affair, including the officer who supervised Billig's recruitment, Commander Reginald Newman. The recruiter was convicted of perjury at a court-martial in January, fined $10,000 and docked $2,000 a month in salary for ten years. His crime: withholding information from an investigating team regarding Billig's competence. Perhaps because the Navy has difficulty attracting experienced surgeons (their average...
Even attempts to investigate Billig were marred by incompetence and misdirection. Scarcely a week after he had begun his inquiry, Hodges was telephoned by his onetime commanding officer, Captain James Quinn, who told him to drop the Billig case. "He accused me of ruining the reputation of an outstanding physician," Hodges testified. "I was chewed out severely." Quinn, who is now retired from the Navy, has received a letter of censure. The review ultimately cleared Billig, and four of the deaths with which he is charged occurred in the following year. Outrage over the Billig case has focused attention...
...Billig's trial comes to a close, a number of reforms are in the works to help prevent future scandals. Beginning in April, for example, civilian doctors will be appointed to monitor the quality of care at military hospitals around the country. Though many problems remain, the Pentagon, asserts David Newhall III, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, "now has more extensive quality review than civilian medicine." If nothing else, Commander Billig has provided his superior officers with a painful but much needed lesson...