Ousted North Carolina doc fights back

A courtroom battle over practice privileges at Smithfield, NC-based Johnston Medical Center pits hospital officials against a cardiologist who says he's getting ousted because of institutional politics and the pursuit of profits. Franklin Wefald, MD, who filed suit to fight the move, claims a dispute with a former partner who was once Johnston Medical's chief of staff lurks behind the hospital's push to remove him. Hospital officials say it suspended his privileges because he allowed a nurse to sign his name to medical orders, an act they say could endanger patients and cost the hospital Medicare dollars.