CREDENTIALING

Fenje v. Feld,
No. 01 C 9684 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 9, 2003)

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a physician's claims against a hospital after he was terminated from its residency program for lying during his application process. On his application form, the physician failed to list a residency program from which he had been dismissed after only 12 days. Following his interview with the hospital, the physician sent a letter stating that "[t]here are no skeletons of any kind in any of my closets," and that his most grievous transgressions were a parking ticket and an undeserved speeding ticket. The physician did not mention that he was involved with a lawsuit with his former residency program at the time he wrote the letter to the hospital. Based on this record, the federal court ruled that the hospital had been justified in terminating the physician from the residency program, and that the hearing it provided satisfied due process requirements.