A prominent UPMC surgeon who was at the center of a massive federal investigation into controversial surgical practices and false billings that ended with the hospital system settling the case for millions of dollars will step down from his leadership position atop one of the hospital system’s most prestigious departments.
The departure of Dr. James Luketich at the end of this month as head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery comes just weeks after the Post-Gazette published details of a secretly recorded conversation that he held with another doctor in which he talked about his prescription drug use and made racially charged comments about a Black surgical resident.
UPMC spokesman Paul Wood confirmed the 69-year-old surgeon was moving on, but has declined to discuss the reason for his exit or details about the transcript, which has been the focus of an intense legal fight for months over whether it can be included in a high-stakes malpractice case in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
Dr. Luketich, who did not respond to interview requests, will stay on at UPMC as a surgeon and will perform a range of research that includes surgical approaches to thoracic and esophageal surgery, said Mr. Wood.
He’ll also continue to hold an endowed professorship at Pitt that’s separate from the department he’s led for the last 13 years.
It’s not clear if the recent revelations about the recording – in which he referred to the Black resident as “uppity” and “entitled” – played a role in the doctor’s departure. But his comments about then surgical resident Dr. Olugbenga Okusanya drew sharp criticism from one of the country’s top research centers that specializes in race and policy.
“It’s repugnant to hear,” said Sara Clarke Kaplan, executive director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. “It is absolutely troubling, when we think about the underrepresentation of Black people in medicine.”
Though the transcript has been sealed from public view because of a court order, the Post-Gazette obtained a copy through a records request from the West Virginia University Health System.
The transcript and tape were sent anonymously to the health system months after the conversation was first recorded.
The Post-Gazette’s May 14 published account of the conversation between Dr. Luketich and fellow doctor David Wilson came five years after their talk was recorded in a room inside UPMC’s flagship hospital in Oakland.
The reason for the meeting was for Dr. Wilson, who had prescribed suboxone to the senior doctor for years, to discuss refilling Dr. Luketich's prescription and to talk about staffing, according to text messages exchanged by the two doctors earlier in the day.
Inside a surgical observation room at the hospital, the two colleagues discussed a range of other topics ranging from the internal politics in the institution to allegations that hospital leadership was pressuring staff to perform more lucrative transplant surgeries to prop up revenues — all the while their words were being recorded.
Dr. Wilson complained during the meeting that then-CEO Jeffrey Romoff “puts incredible pressure on everybody because the transplant numbers keep the bank account full.”
“Yeah,” Dr. Luketich replied.
“And all Romoff pays attention to the numbers,” Dr. Wilson said.
The conversation between the two doctors at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in 2018 took place shortly before a federal whistleblower case was filed against Dr. Luketich and UPMC accusing the surgeon of carrying out multiple surgeries at the same time and fraudulent billing that amounted to millions of dollars. The case was ultimately settled in February, with UPMC agreeing to pay the federal government $8.5 million.
Even as the federal case was coming to a close, lawyers for plaintiffs in the malpractice suit that’s still unfolding in Allegheny County court have pressed to include the secret recording in their own dispute.
Dr. Luketich is accused in the state case of making poor staffing decisions while under the influence of suboxone that ultimately sapped the lung transplant program of critical resources and contributed to a botched lung transplant of an Aliquippa woman.
Lawyers for Dr. Luketich vehemently denied the allegations and downplayed his planned departure as head of the pioneering cardiothoracic surgery department.
"Dr. Luketich's many years of stellar service to UPMC and its patients in saving lives and teaching young surgeons is a testament to his incredible accomplishments," Dr. Luketich's lawyer, Efrem Grail, said.
To this day, it’s not clear who secretly made the nearly 11-minute recording in 2018 between the two doctors or distributed it to other parties.
Though the Post-Gazette obtained a copy, it’s still under seal in Allegheny County court and the subject of a fight over whether it can be disclosed to the public.
Lawyers for the Post-Gazette joined in the case to press Judge Philip Ignelzi to release the copies of the transcript and the recording, saying it was matter of public interest.
The judge, who routinely cleared the public from the courtroom when details of the recording were discussed, has yet to issue a ruling.
Mike Wereschagin: mwereschagin@post-gazette.com; Twitter: @Wrschgn
First Published: June 9, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: June 10, 2023, 7:04 p.m.