Dr. Anil Nanda will leave Shreveport medical school for New Jersey jobs

Nick Wooten | Shreveport Times

Show Caption Hide Caption Edwards: Don't believe the rumors Rumors the LSU medical school in Shreveport might leave have been flying. But Gov. John Bel Edwards says it's here to stay.

Dr. Anil Nanda, the surgeon who headed LSU Health Shreveport's neurosurgery department before his demotion last year amid protests, is leaving to take positions at Rutgers University and the largest health care provider in New Jersey.

While Nanda has declined to discuss his demotion, a new filing in a federal lawsuit alleging anti-trust violations by the Willis-Knighton Health System asserts that Willis-Knighton forced the medical school to demote Nanda. Willis-Knighton has denied the charge.

"Health care in Shreveport lost its civility," Nanda said in an interview Thursday.

Nanda posted a statement earlier this week on the Change.org petition started by others encouraging his reinstatement as chairman of the neurosurgery department at the LSU medical school in Shreveport.

According to the post, Nanda will be professor and chairman of the department of neurosurgery for Rutgers' Robert Wood Johnson and New Jersey medical schools, effective July 1.

More: Dr. Anil Nanda on leaving Shreveport: 'leaving is always bittersweet'

Nanda also will serve as senior vice president of neurosurgical services for RWJBarnabas Health, a network of independent health care providers in New Jersey. The company has a partnership with Rutgers.

"Twenty-eight years ago on a cold Pittsburgh morning, an avuncular southern gentleman called me about an opportunity in Louisiana," Nanda wrote at Change.org. "I remember being flippant with him, saying, 'Do you really want a Hindu boy and his Yankee wife in the Bible Belt?' That quintessential southern gentleman was John McDonald, Chairman of Surgery, who recruited me to Louisiana and had a life-changing impact on me."

He also wrote: "I’ve had a wonderful twenty-seven years in this community and state and I feel privileged to have served for so many years. Time changes everything. Laura (his wife) and I will be leaving Louisiana for New Jersey and I am excited about this new opportunity."

Dr. G.E. Ghali, chancellor of LSU Health Shreveport, removed Nanda from his post as chairman of the neurosurgery department in October. Ghali's action amounted to firing Nanda from the chairmanship of the department that the neurosurgeon had started in 1995. Because he had tenure, Nanda could not be fired from his lesser role as a professor.

More: Nanda's colleagues call his removal a 'personal attack'

Ghali never explained why he removed Nanda. The neurosurgeon's ouster prompted protests from department faculty, staff and alumni. Even Gov. John Bel Edwards was dragged into the dispute. But Nanda was not restored to his chairmanship.

While the reason for Nanda's removal has not been disclosed, it has now entered the pleadings in an anti-trust lawsuit that BRF filed against Willis-Knighton in 2015.

BRF, which operates the University Health hospital in Shreveport, alleged in an April court filing that Ghali dismissed Nanda because the neurosurgeon treated too few patients at Willis-Knighton Health System hospitals. Nanda, like many medical school professors, maintained a private practice.

In the court filing — an amended complaint to expand its allegations — BRF asserts that Ghali acted on Willis-Knighton's behalf in removing Nanda as neurosurgery department head. The pleading is personal in that it invokes Willis-Knighton's chief executive, Jim Elrod, by name.

"Dr. Nanda was dismissed because he did not admit sufficient numbers of patients at

Willis-Knighton to satisfy James Elrod, and because he had always cooperated with (University Health)," BRF alleges in the pleading. "Unlike most other LSU physicians who have operated clinics at Willis-Knighton, Dr. Nanda has always continued to conduct the bulk of his surgeries at UHS."

BRF alleges that Nanda was expected to leave the medical school "as a result of this unfair rebuke and demotion." BRF also claims that neurosurgery admissions at University Health had declined by 15 percent since his demotion.

"When Dr. Nanda leaves Shreveport, this will also cause very serious harm to UHS, which currently has the premier neurosurgery program in the Shreveport-Bossier City area, in large part due to Dr. Nanda," according to the court document. "The loss of Dr. Nanda’s cases alone will result in a more than $3 million in annual lost incremental profit to the hospital, and the losses in the department as a whole will be even greater."

In response, Willis-Knighton said in a court filing that University Health was trying to transform its disputes with LSU into claims against Willis-Knighton.

"Based on conclusory assertions that LSU must have been acting at Willis-Knighton’s behest, University Health hopes to magically transform all its well-publicized disputes with LSU into antitrust claims against Willis-Knighton. (And once again LSU is not a party to this lawsuit)," Willis-Knighton said in its filing.

BRF has alleged in the lawsuit that Willis-Knighton used its market dominance and influence over the LSU medical school in attempts to hurt BRF's operation of University Health hospital. The Nanda allegation is one of several that BRF has made in an attempt to prove its assertion.

More: Threats, trickery revealed in Willis-Knighton, BRF, LSU antitrust suit

University Health is the medical school's chief teaching hospital. The medical school owned and operated the hospital until then-Gov. Bobby Jindal forced its privatization in 2013, turning hospital operations over to BRF. Since then, BRF and the medical school have fought over University Health operations, lease payments, fees paid to doctors and doctor-trainees, and more.

BRF alleges, in effect, that Willis-Knighton has used its influence with the medical school, including millions of dollars in cash donations, to encourage the conflict.

LSU Health Shreveport is not a named defendant in BRF's lawsuit. It is, however, a central player in the claims and counter-claims made by BRF and Willis-Knighton.

When reached by phone Thursday in New York City, Nanda declined to respond to the claims made by University Health about his demotion, the lawsuit or a potential takeover of University Health by the Ochsner Health System.

He said the past few months amounted to just one-tenth of 1 percent of his wonderful 27 years in Shreveport and Bossier City. He married his wife, Laura, shortly after moving to Shreveport. Now, the couple will return to his wife's home state. She is a Rutgers graduate, Nanda said.

"I'm ready to carpe diem my next opportunity," he said, using the Latin phrase that translates as "seize the day."

More on this topic

Dr. Anil Nanda on leaving Shreveport: 'leaving is always bittersweet'

Full text of staff letter supporting Dr. Anil Nanda

Dr. Nanda asks Gov. Edwards to intercede at LSU Health Shreveport

Nanda gets birthday surprise at medical reception

Dr. Nanda petition grows to 7,800-plus supporters

Nanda's colleagues call his removal a 'personal attack'

Text of LSU Health Shreveport neurosurgery alumni supporting Dr. Nanda

BRF to Jim Elrod: Stop interfering with University Health

Jim Elrod: BRF exec dishonors Shehee, Willis-Knighton

Threats, trickery revealed in Willis-Knighton, BRF, LSU antitrust suit