Medical Residents at Dallas Hospital Operated With Little or No Supervision, Newspaper Reports

An investigative report by The Dallas Morning News raises questions about the level of autonomy granted to medical residents and the quality of care they provide at a charity hospital affiliated with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. The newspaper said its review of records and interviews with current and former staff members of the medical center and the hospital, Parkland Memorial, suggested a near reversal of power between residents and the faculty members who oversee them at Parkland. Residents initiated surgeries with little or no faculty supervision, it said, sometimes botching those procedures or making other medical errors. Officials of the medical center and the hospital disputed the allegations, saying they originated with one demoted faculty surgeon who has sued to get his job back.