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A veteran head surgeon at Boston Medical Center has been fined admitting to leaving the operating room prior to the start of a procedure to eat in his car, where he fell asleep and missed the operation, nearly five years ago.
Dr. Tony Tannoury, 54, the head of spine surgery at BMC, was fined $5,000 for the November 2016 incident, according to a consent order released by the Board of Registration in Medicine on Monday (October 28) obtained by the Boston Globe.
The state Board of Registration in Medicine recently ruled that Tannoury, who was the attending sugeon for orthopedic trauma emergencies on the night of the incident, had "engaged in conduct that undermines the public confidence in the integrity of the medical profession" after escorting a patient into the operating room prior to emergency ankle surgery alongside a resident before going out to his car and missing the procedure.
Tannoury was ordered to complete five continuing education credits in "professionalism" and review regulations for supervising residents as part of the state Board of Registration in Medicine's ruling over the incident, which took nearly five years to be made public, according to the Globe.
Tannoury had previously received a written reprimand from Boston Medical Center for violating a hospital policy requiring surgeons to be present during critical operations prior to the board intervening in the situation, which was signed last month and obtained by the Globe.
Boston Medical Center notified the medical board of the incident, according to hospital spokeswoman Jenny Eriksen Leary, who didn't specify when the board was initially notified.