Sex scandal leads to verdict against Prime Healthcare hospital

Dr. Prem Reddy has frequently been criticized over his tough management, cost-cutting and reduced medical services at Prime Healthcare Services Inc., his fast-growing Ontario-based hospital chain. But this week the company owner and chief executive found himself at the center of a very different type of controversy — a sex scandal that quietly led to sweeping management changes at an Encino hospital and a $1-million wrongful-termination verdict. A Los Angeles jury awarded the money Wednesday to the former chief nursing officer of Encino Hospital Medical Center after concluding that she was laid off in 2012 because she had complained about an affair between the hospital's chief medical officer and a female supervisor.