A western Iowa surgeon is denying allegations that he provided substandard care for patients and manipulated patient-outcome data.
Through his attorney, Dr. Giovanni Ciuffo issued a written statement this week that said the allegations, made in federal court on May 6 by a nurse with whom he once worked, are “outrageous and completely false.” He said he is “confident that the falsity of those allegations will be brought to light through the legal process.”
The allegations are part of a civil lawsuit that Cynthia Tener, a registered nurse, filed against her former employer, MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center, for alleged retaliation in violation of public policy and the federal False Claims Act. Tener was the medical center’s director of the cardiovascular service line until she was fired last fall.
In her lawsuit, she alleges she faced retaliation after raising concerns regarding Ciuffo’s conduct and his treatment of patients – an allegation that Mercy denies.
Ciuffo’s attorney, William J. Hale, says Tener’s claim that Ciuffo would keep patients alive via ventilators, heart pumps and feeding tubes for at least 30 days after surgery to improve his ratings in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ database is demonstrably false. He said a cursory review of the STS website indicates the organization counts all deaths occurring during a hospitalization in which a procedure is performed — even those that occurred more than 30 days after surgery.
As for the allegation that Ciuffo’s...
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