Judge Acts to Stem Hospital Staff Turmoil : Courts: Ruling bars officials at King/Drew Medical Center from threatening doctor. The dispute arose from demotion of the head of emergency department, who has sued, alleging race and age discrimination.

Turmoil among senior emergency physicians at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center has allegedly erupted twice this month into threats of violence, prompting a judge this week to bar top county hospital officials from threatening one of the doctors.

Tensions have mounted since late last year, when Dr. William Shoemaker was demoted from his post as chairman of the emergency department and replaced by Dr. H. Range Hutson.

Shoemaker, who is white and 71 years old, has fought his demotion in a lawsuit accusing hospital officials of race and age discrimination. In February, he won a preliminary injunction blocking his demotion, but court records indicate that he and Hutson, who is black, have been at odds since then.

A declaration by Shoemaker alleges that Hutson berated and threatened him “using the most disgusting gutter language” in a “frightening” confrontation on March 1 in the doctors’ dining area.

Hutson said in an interview Thursday that he has never threatened Shoemaker and likes him.

Shoemaker’s protege, Dr. Harry Kram, alleged that Hutson also threatened him about a week later, according to court records.

Hutson had terminated Kram in February, but hospital officials rescinded the move later that month after Kram, who is white, filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging race discrimination.

Kram has recently sworn in a declaration that Hutson threatened him on March 8 by demanding that he step out of the emergency room and into the corridor, where he adopted a “combative posture with fists clenched” and used vulgarities in a threatening tone. Kram stated that he immediately sought protection from the hospital’s security police.

“I thought (Hutson) was going to physically assault me,” Kram’s declaration said.

Hutson has acknowledged in court papers that he confronted Kram about his work performance, particularly “his unavailability and general shirking of his supervising responsibilities.” But Hutson said “no physical contact took place. None was threatened.”

Attorney Joseph Duff, representing Hutson, has argued in court papers that “candid speech, even though offensive to the sensibilities of some persons, is necessary in the workplace.”

Attorney Rees Lloyd, representing Hutson and Kram, said the verbal attacks show a “pattern of discriminatory conduct arising from animus based upon their race and color.”

Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien on Thursday granted a request by Kram for a preliminary injunction prohibiting Hutson or other county health and hospital officials from threatening Kram with violence.

Shoemaker was removed as chairman of the emergency department last year after an accrediting agency threatened to shut down King’s training program for resident emergency physicians because of poor supervision by senior doctors. The agency also pointed out that Shoemaker is an excellent surgeon but not a certified emergency specialist.

Early this year, medical center officials replaced Shoemaker with Hutson, who is an emergency specialist from County-USC Medical Center, under a six-month contract for $120,000.

In an interview Thursday, Hutson said he was hired to “clean up a mess.” He said he discovered that some senior emergency physicians expected to get paid even though they were not working their shifts or providing the kind of quality care that patients deserve.

“Sometimes, you have to fire people,” he said, “and they yell and scream after they’ve been fired.”

O’Brien issued a preliminary injunction Feb. 1 barring the removal of Shoemaker from his post as department chairman, but the state court of appeals temporarily stayed the order.

Hutson told The Times that he, not Shoemaker, remains chairman. “Nobody has told me anything otherwise,” Hutson said.

But the hospital’s medical director, Dr. Edward Savage, whose medical specialty is gynecological oncology, issued a memorandum Tuesday to emergency physicians saying that he has assumed Hutson’s duties as emergency medicine chairman. He said he has retained Hutson as a consultant.

The hospital’s personnel director has said in a declaration that Hutson cannot act as chairman because he was hired outside the Civil Service process and is not a Civil Service employee, as required of all department chairmen.