— Richard Zelman, MD, also alleges that Cape Cod Hospital breached his contract

A long-time Cape Cod interventional cardiologist is suing his former hospital, alleging that he was retaliated against and defamed, and that the terms of his employment contract were breached, all as the result of sounding the alarm on profits being placed before patient care.

Richard Zelman, MD, filed a complaint against Cape Cod Hospital and its president and CEO, Michael K. Lauf, as well as its parent health system, Cape Cod Healthcare, in Barnstable County Superior Court earlier this week.

Zelman first became affiliated with the hospital in 1990, accepted full-time employment in 2006, and previously served as medical director of its newly created Heart and Vascular Center since 2018.

In his complaint, he stated that, "when he raised patient safety concerns that impeded revenue generation or otherwise adversely affected the bottom-line, the defendants retaliated against [him], including by threatening his career and reputation and unlawfully terminating his employment with the hospital," which Cape Cod Hospital adamantly denied.

Zelman pointed to alleged occurrences that began in 2019, such as when he objected to Lauf refusing to acquire certain devices to filter out stroke-causing debris for use in all transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures on patients deemed to be at high risk. While Lauf eventually acquired a limited number of these devices, he prohibited their use in...

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