The regional hospital is reviewing thousands of X-rays and CAT scans after firing its chief radiologist, who is accused of misreading medical films. The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure also is reviewing patient records at the Regional Medical Center in Madisonville to determine whether to launch its own investigation. If this were a typical regional medical center, the situation might not merit such a response, but Trover Regional Medical Center is one of the largest non-urban hospital facilities in the United States.

The hospital has allegedly reread more than 8,000 X-rays, and the process is ongoing. Trover Regional has acknowledged that it has talked to an undisclosed number of patients about discrepancies discovered in the film reviews, and that the discussions included offers of a private settlement that would preclude them from suing. The allegations center around Dr. Phillip C. Trover, son of the hospital founder-- who had worked there about 23 years as a radiologist. His employment at the medical center was recently terminated, with no reason given to the public.

Hospital officials disclosed to community leaders in March 2004 that an internal review was under way after Dr. Neil Kluger, an oncologist at the hospital, wrote a letter to administrators alleging that Trover had misread patient films and that hospital officials were aware of the problem. Kluger's letter alleged that Trover failed to detect clinically significant problems such as suspected cancer, abscesses, and internal masses that contributed to at least one patient's death. Kluger also said in the letter that he believed that hospital administrators knew that Trover was a problem and failed to take action because he was a member of the hospital's founding family.

Kluger, in his letter, said a patient died in 2002 after an abdominal abscess went undetected in a CT scan ruptured during gallstone surgery. In a deposition taken for the lawsuit, Kluger said he was told by the patient's personal physician, Dr. Bret Wittmer, that the abscess "was the size of a soccer ball." Kluger's letter also said another physician, radiologist Craig Lundquist, had observed Trover reading four X-ray mammograms in four seconds. "I maintain that it is impossible for any radiologist to read an X-ray in four seconds," Kluger wrote.