Melamed v. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center CA2/1
On July 15, 2011, the medical staff of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Cedars) summarily suspended Hooman Melamed, M.D.’s privileges to perform back surgeries in scoliosis and kyphosis cases, after Dr. Melamed’s operation on a 12-year-old scoliosis patient resulted in complications and necessitated a second, corrective surgery. In a year-long peer review hearing that began in September 2012 and concluded in November 2013, Dr.
Melamed challenged the summary suspension of his privileges (and other recommendations of Cedars’s medical staff). The Hearing Committee concluded, among other things, the summary suspension was reasonable and warranted when it was imposed on July 15, 2011 but, at the time of the Hearing Committee’s decision in January 2014, the portion of the initial suspension that remained in effect should be terminated and Dr. Melamed’s privileges reinstated, with prospective review of his clinical management in pediatric and adolescent scoliosis cases.
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