Published: May 24, 2008 12:06 am      

Health center fires awarded doctor

ismissal comes as shock to patients, colleagues

Tri-State Community Health Center’s Doctor of the Year award-winner thought he had until Aug. 1 to look for a new job.

Matthew Hahn, who practices in Hancock for a federally funded organization with offices in Cumberland, Hancock and McConnellsburg, Pa., learned Thursday he was to no longer see patients effective immediately, according to a letter from Leslie Colbrese, executive director for Tri-State Health.

Hahn’s dismissal comes as a shock to his colleagues and patients and could foreshadow future adverse actions affecting those remaining with the organization, said Wayne Spiggle, a physician who works part time in the Cumberland office on Kelly Road.

Spiggle has told the center’s board of directors on three occasions that the system’s problems stem from the actions of Colbrese, who was hired 16 months ago. When she was hired, “people started leaving shortly after that,” Spiggle said. “I have noticed over the past year ... different faces ... but I did not realize the depth of the problem until Hahn was fired two weeks ago.”

The Cumberland office has roughly 30 employees, including three full-time physicians and three full-time nurse practitioners. Three calls to the Cumberland and Hancock offices for Colbrese were not returned.

Spiggle said he’s concerned the health center could lose its viability with current leadership and, if that were to happen, many of the primary care and ob/gyn services “would not be filled in any other way.”

With the original letter of termination, Hahn declined comment about why he was fired. But after receiving the second letter Thursday, Hahn issued a written statement that he was fired “following my attempts to assist a large number of Tri-State’s employees to bring significant workplace problems to light.”

“I offered assistance out of concern for the health center and in an effort to make it a better, stronger organization,” Hahn said. “The Tri-State Board of Directors and administration have blatantly ignored these concerns.”

His record as a physician, he noted, “has not been questioned, and in no way led to my termination.”

Hahn’s problems originated in Hancock but his issue is representative of systemwide concerns, Spiggle said. A group of employees approached Hahn, the medical director, to take its concerns regarding Colbrese to the board of directors. The board told Hahn to take the matter to Colbrese.

The employees, and Hahn, felt there was too much turnover in personnel and a dissatisfaction with management, which combined to negatively impact the quality of care afforded to patients. When Hahn brought the complaint to Colbrese, “he was immediately fired,” said Lynne Bernabei, Hahn’s attorney, who believes Hahn was wrongfully terminated.

“He is understandably concerned about turnover,” Bernabei said. “Previously, he didn’t have any personal issues with the executive director.”

“You have to have reason to remove him from his clinical duties,” Spiggle said. “We know they do not have reason to do that.”

Bernabei said she believes the issues are representative of all three offices because “the management is systemwide.” She said she sent a letter to the board asking to meet and discuss the matter. “Their response was, they said, ‘don’t even bother to come in.’ They seem quite intractable. I think for us that just leads us to believe it’s pretty clear it was a retaliatory action.”

Bernabei said Hahn did not have second thoughts about trying to help the employees — that he was fulfilling his role as medical director.

Spiggle has suggested to the board members for an independent, outside agency “to diagnose and remedy the underlying disease” in a work environment which is “rapidly deteriorating.”

Recently published reports have established that Hahn seems to go the extra mile while working for his patients. He even makes house calls on occasion. He’s won a number of awards, including the 2007 Maryland Rural Health Summit’s Outstanding Rural Health Practitioner. He also was a national finalist for the Family Physician of the Year Award given by the American Academy of Family Physicians and, in 2006, was the Maryland Academy of Family Physicians Family Doctor of the Year.

Tri-State is a nonprofit center that delivers primary care services to both insured and uninsured individuals in Washington and Allegany counties, Morgan County, W.Va., and Fulton County, Pa.

Despite a noncompete clause in his contract, Hahn said he intends to practice in the tri-state area “and I will continue to take care of patients in this region.”

Bernabei said Hahn should be entitled to remain in the area because the board breached the contract and, subsequently, “he is relieved of that noncompete clause.”

Hahn, 45, has practiced in Hancock for eight years, two years beyond his original six-year contract through a National Health Service Corps scholarship. The Montgomery County native said he stayed in the area because “I love it.”

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.