A Canadian radiologist with "questionable skills" was able to escape scrutiny for six years because medical colleagues and hospital staff did not share key patient safety information, according to an article published October 31 by the Vancouver Sun.
The radiologist, Dr. Claude Vezina, worked on a locum tenens basis in various hospitals across Canada, including Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace, British Columbia. In January, he was placed on extended leave from Mills due to the discovery of "egregious errors" in some of his imaging reports, said Dr. Martin Wale, deputy chief medical officer and executive medical director at Vancouver Island Health Authority. Wale was commissioned this summer by the British Columbia Ministry of Health to investigate Vezina.
Locum doctors are not typically subject to the same performance reviews as other radiologists, the Sun reported.
Radiologists at Vancouver General Hospital reviewed more than 13,000 images Vezina interpreted at four health authorities: Island Health, Northern Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, and Interior Health. The review showed that Vezina had discrepancy rates as high as 15% at hospitals on Vancouver Island where he worked between 2013 and 2016. A 15% discrepancy rate is three times the expected rate of discrepancies in such retrospective reviews, the Sun said.
Vezina first came to British Columbia from Ontario, and he has worked in the Northwest Territories since the scandal broke, according to the article. His poor performance raised red flags but "concerns about privacy and working relationships [limited] the ability to seek information," Wale said. Vezina is currently not practicing medicine.
Wale is not aware of any patient deaths due to Vezina's clinical mistakes, but many patients may have been misdiagnosed and have been recalled for further testing, the Sun reported.
