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Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 845926.pdf

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Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 845926.pdf
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Washington (state)
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Dr. Litvack testified that she did not remember speaking with Dr. Futran about

her productivity being below target before this meeting. Instead, Dr. Litvack testified

she was told in early 2018 by Michelle Doyle, vice chair of administration for the

Department, that there was no problem with her RVUs. 3 Dr. Litvack testified about her

productivity at the ESC:

I was disproportionately required to see non-surgical and medical otology
patients that are important for the system, important for the care of
patients, but do not provide the same RVU value. I was disproportionately
required to take care of these medical and medical otology patients, the
non-surgical patients, when I moved to the [ESC], so much so that
patients that came in for sinus care could not make appointments with me
and were often redirected towards Dr. Humphreys.

Dr. Litvack also pointed to the lack of experienced support staff available to her at the

ESC which made it harder for her to get documentation done on time. For example,

“Dr. Humphreys had a well-trained medical assistant who understood not just

otolaryngology, but rhinology, and that he had access to an onsite nurse. I had an

untrained medical assistant with no otolaryngology, or very little otolaryngology

experience, and no nurse.” Additionally, Dr. Litvack claims the surgery scheduler

3 Relative value units (RVUs) are used to measure physician productivity.

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For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.

No. 84592-6-I/8

disproportionately favored male colleagues Dr. Davis and Dr. Humphreys in terms of

response time, attitude, and patient care.

Dr. Litvack testified on why she tried to change her clinic schedule template to

send sinus surgery patients to her as a priority: