Gail Heriot (May 3), Erin O’Connor (Apr. 30), and Martin Grace (May 2) all comment on the case of Heidi Baer of Quincy, Mass., who having failed the medical boards three times is now suing the National Board of Medical Examiners under the Americans with Disabilities Act for not giving her extra time on the exam to accommodate her dyslexia. (J.M. Lawrence, “Med student’s dyslexia plea: I need time to pursue dream”, Boston Herald, Apr. 30). For more on ADA and test accommodation, see Jul. 21, 2004, Nov. 13, 2003 and links from there. In Connecticut, meanwhile, Dr. Benjamin Smith is seeking $2.5 million from Norwalk Hospital over alleged overwork and failure to accommodate his attention deficit disorder (ADD). The two sides dispute whether Smith was made to work beyond the 80-hour maximum that is supposed to be placed on residents’ workloads; Dr. Eric M. Mazur, chairman of the hospital’s internal medicine department, denies that the institution was insensitive to Dr. Smith’s needs, saying it “rearranged some of his schedules, reduced his patient load and put him on days instead of nights” and wound up terminating him for performance. He added what must count as one of the strongly worded statements of its kind we’ve seen in a while:

“The medical establishment is often accused of not policing itself, and not clearing out bad apples,” Mazur said. “It was the consensus of the faculty that his continued employment would endanger patient care.”

(Marian Gail Brown, “Doc asks $2m for overwork”, Connecticut Post, Apr. 21)(& welcome Grand Rounds XXXVI readers).

Filed under: Connecticut, disabled rights, hospitals