Doctor who challenged double-booked surgeries at Mass. General reaches settlement

A former Massachusetts General Hospital orthopedic surgeon who publicly criticized the hospital’s policy of allowing physicians to perform more than one surgery at a time has reached a $13 million wrongful termination settlement with the hospital. Dr. Dennis Burke, who was at the center of a Boston Globe Spotlight series exposing double-booking surgeries, was fired in 2015 after allegedly clashing with the hospital administration for calling out the practice, which allowed surgeons to book concurrent surgeries — overlaps that could last hours — without letting patients know that they were sharing a surgeon. MGH, which says Burke was fired over violations of patient confidentiality, has since changed its surgery policy. Burke has now been offered his old job back and will be honored with a new hospital safety initiative bearing his name. Burke told the Globe, however, that he doesn’t plan to resume working at MGH.