Barbara Kraus Et Al. v. Robert Brandstetter

[167 A.D.2d 445 Page 445] The plaintiff-respondent, Barbara Kraus, was the vice-president of nursing services for the New Rochelle Hospital Medical Center (hereinafter the hospital). On or about October 14, 1987, Kraus reported to the director of medicine that she had been told by nurses who worked in the Intensive Care Unit that the defendant-appellant Dr. Robert Brandstetter had failed to perform bronchoscopies on four patients, that Dr. Brandstetter had nevertheless reported in the patients' charts that he had performed the bronchoscopies, and that patient consent forms had been forged by him. While the hospital's Law Committee found that Kraus's actions in reporting Dr. Brandstetter had been proper, the hospital subsequently exonerated Dr. Brandstetter with regard to any alleged misconduct, and Kraus was discharged on June 6, 1988.