Doctor defends stent operations of former practice

Cardiologists at Excela Health were accused of performing unnecessary procedures as punishment for causing discord among the hospital's medical staff, a doctor testified Monday.

The defense took center stage as the trial in the civil lawsuit filed by a North Huntingdon truck driver against Excela, Dr. Ehab Morcos and Westmoreland County Cardiology entered its sixth day.

Steven Sensenich, 57, contends he received seven stents — mesh tubes implanted in heart arteries to improve blood flow — from Morcos during three procedures in late 2008. Five of those stents were unnecessary, according to the lawsuit.

Dr. James Adisey, a former partner with Morcos at Westmoreland County Cardiology, told jurors that an external review commissioned by Excela in early 2011 was retribution for his practice's ongoing feud with a competing cardiology group based in Latrobe, which had previously suggested patients were undergoing unneeded stent procedures.

Excela in early 2011 issued disclosures to 192 patients saying they may have received unnecessary stents in 2009 and 2010 from Morcos and Dr. George Bou Samra, another doctor associated with Westmoreland County Cardiology.

Sensenich's case is the first of 71 malpractice cases still pending against Morcos, Bou Samra and Excela.

Adisey testified that Westmoreland County Cardiology, which he helped form, no longer operates as a physician group, and he now works for another doctor's practice at Excela. He told jurors the hospital's notification to patients about problems with the work of Morcos and Bou Samra was an effort to discredit their practice and to help promote doctors hired just days earlier by a revamped administrative team to form a new cardiology practice affiliated with Excela.

“I think it was to prevent our group from practicing,” Adisey testified. He told jurors he never suspected Morcos, Bou Samra or any other doctors in their group had performed unnecessary stent procedures and that a review of their work commissioned by the hospital in 2009 found no irregularities.

Excela officials have testified they found that 2009 review unreliable.

“No one there would consider doing that,” Adisey said, noting that doctors at his practice did not investigate any allegations that were raised. “It was up to the hospital to investigate.”

Adisey conceded that the number of cardiac patients seen by his group and stents implanted had dramatically increased but those numbers reflected a higher quality in care and an enhanced reputation due in part to Morcos and Bou Samra joining the practice in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Leslie Boltey, who served as manager of Excela's catheterization lab until she was fired in 2012, testified she was not aware of any allegations against Morcos or any of the doctors who performed stent procedures in Excela's lab.

She told jurors she was “surprised” when the hospital disclosed to patients that improprieties may have occurred. “There is no doubt in my mind that the staff working in the (catheterization) lab was one of the finest in the country. If something there was wrong, they would have come to me,” Boltey testified.

Westmoreland County Judge Anthony Marsili is presiding over the trial, which could go to the jury Friday.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer.