Physician can use Queen’s radiation facilities, court says

A federal appeals court has upheld an earlier decision allowing a cancer radiation treatment specialist to continue practicing at the Queen’s Medical Center.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Monday an injunction by U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Koba­­y­a­shi that allows Dr. John Led­erer to use oncology radiation facilities at Queen’s.

He is among five doctors at Pacific Radiation Oncology who sued the hospital to block a Queen’s policy that took effect in February 2012, restricting use of its oncology radiation facilities to only its employed physicians. Queen’s appealed the injunction.

The case will proceed to trial in December on the issue of damages and the group’s request for a permanent injunction that would allow the other doctors to also use Queen’s, the only hospital with an attached radiation facility since the closure of the Hawaii Medical Centers in 2011 and 2012.

"This was an attempt by Queen’s to try to get all of the other work from (Hawaii Pacific Health) and Kaiser all brought into Queen’s so they would have had an essential monopoly on the entire radiation oncology practice," said Mark Davis, attorney for the physicians.

A Queen’s spokes­man declined comment Tuesday because the case is ongoing.

As a result of the exclusion of the rest of the physicians, procedures that can only be provided in a hospital setting are no longer available in Hawaii, including high-dose radiation for certain types of cancers of the cervix, uterus, tongue, head and neck, Davis said.

Many patients must now seek treatment on the mainland or receive less effective care, Davis added, but he said he didn’t know how many patients have been affected by the Queen’s policy.

Queen’s offered Lederer and the other doctors jobs, but they turned down the offers because the hospital would have required them to stop providing services at competing facilities and relinquish ownership or financial interests in competing centers that provide radiation oncology services.

One of the physicians moved to the mainland because she could no longer practice at Queen’s, while the other doctors have scaled back their practices, Davis said.

The oncology group started the radiation program at Queen’s 40 years ago and also operates and partially owns other radiation centers in Li­liha and on the campus of the former Hawaii Medical Center-West. Queen’s is scheduled to reopen the Ewa hospital this spring.