Oral arguments over Dr. Greg Salard’s administrative appeal of his denial of privileges at Wrangell Medical Center have been put aside after First District Judge Kevin Miller dismissed his appeal – a move that will allow the WMC Board of Trustees to act on his request to work again at the hospital.
On Feb. 14 Judge Miller ordered that Salard’s administrative appeal be dismissed without prejudice, a move that would allow him to refile another appeal if he is not credentialed by the board.
In his written decision, Miller laid out some background as to how the appeal came to his desk – and why Salard sought to delay the appeal process.
“As a result of the appointment of new board members and a withdrawal of DaNika Smalley’s complaint Dr. Salard wanted to resubmit his application for privileges to the new board. In order to do so, Dr. Salard sought to delay the appeal while he sought the new Board’s reconsideration,” Miller writes.
Miller then laid out his legal rationale for granting the dismissal after WMC attorneys sought clarification of an Aug. 28, 2012 order requiring Salard to “dismiss his appeal with prejudice, in the event the WMC Board grants reconsideration of his privileges.”
“The language in the August 28, 2012 order is clear and needs no clarification. The order, drafted by Dr. Salard’s attorney, states that he ‘…shall dismiss this appeal with prejudice, in the event the WMC Board grants reconsideration of his privileges.’ The Board stated that it (will) reconsider Dr. Salard’s application for privileges. As a result, the Board has reasonably asked Dr. Salard to dismiss this appeal as a precondition to the reconsideration. As stated above, reconsideration clears the earlier decision from the slate and thus, the basis for the current appeal disappears. Dr. Salard does retain the right to seek judicial review of the Board’s final action on reconsideration,” Miller writes. “Therefore, I must dismiss the current appeal. However, the dismissal will be without prejudice so that if the Board does not reconsider Dr. Salard’s application for privileges, Dr. Salard may continue to seek review of the initial denial.”
The board has hesitated in recent months to act on Salard’s reapplication for privileging at WMC after a newly elected board proceeded with caution in all current privileging matters.
Board president Woody Wilson explained why such caution had been necessary.
“What we’ve discovered through our new administrator, Marla Sanger, is that we haven’t been as judicious as we should be in terms of providing due diligence for all credentialing,” Wilson said. “There were things that were not being done that we now believe should be done that are standards in the industry.”
Salard also weighed in on what he sees as the net result of Judge Miller’s decision.
“Judge Miller has cleared the way for the board to make a decision on my privileges,” Salard said. “By dismissing the appeal without prejudice, he has explicitly preserved my rights. That is what I have wanted all along. Everyone knows that I did nothing wrong – what happened to me was politically motivated by the recalled board and fired administrator. The new board was elected to fix the mess they left. Now it is totally in the hands of the board and there is no reason they cannot go forward and make this right.”
The WMC Board held their open and a possible executive session meeting on Wednesday. The results of any credentialing discussion from that meeting were not available by press time.
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