In 2014, Jeffrey Wilson was a graduating, chief urology resident at Ohio State Medical School. In reading through his 91-page court filing, his program appears toxic – primarily as a result of a dysfunctional, hostile, abusive chairman, who also served as program director. Why Professor/ Chair Bahnson would additionally serve as program director is not readily determined, but likely is another symptom of the program’s dysfunction.
Wilson made it all the way through to the last day of residency, but when one of his fellow chief residents took a personal day off that last day, Bahnson apparently believed it was a conspiracy of all three graduating residents. He retaliated. Just days before all three were to sit for their written urology board exams, Bahnson withdrew his approval for them and told the urology board that all three had committed unnamed grievous ethical violations.
Wilson appealed to his department, its leadership, the hierarchy of Ohio State Medical School, etc, and ended up filing suit when he got nowhere. He was able to get reinstated as eligible for the exam the day prior to taking it. The suit, which was eventually settled out of court, reveals disturbing behaviors and culture within the Ohio State urology program. One wonders how common some of these situations are in our residency and fellowship programs nationwide. More importantly, how do these toxic attendings keep getting away with the dysfunction and disease that they heap on the rest of us? Additionally, consider that this program was apparently in good standing with the ACGME. It carried the monopoly stamp of approval.
See the Wilson v. Bahnson et al .pdf court filing here.
Our programs. Our Future. Our Responsibility.