Natrona County has insurance to cover itself and the board overseeing the Wyoming Medical Center's lease of the county's hospital assets as it reviews its role in a $10 million lawsuit filed Monday, Commission Chairman Rob Hendry said Tuesday.

"They're covered one way or another by liability insurance," Hendry said.

He recently learned Central Wyoming Neurosurgery LLC might sue the Memorial Hospital of Natrona County, the WMC and related parties for violating the constitutional rights of its three doctors, he said.

Hendry also thought Central Wyoming Neurosurgery might name the county as a defendant, because it owns the hospital assets leased by the nonprofit Wyoming Medical Center Inc., he said.

The lawsuit probes the responsibility of those overseeing the nonprofit Wyoming Medical Center Inc., and it reveals the hospital's internal politics as the neurosurgery group parted with WMC.

The doctors - Robert A. Narotzky, Thomas A. Kopitnik and Debra Steele - resigned their privileges to practice at the Wyoming Medical Center in November 2005 after 20 months of a hostile work environment, according to the complaint filed by their attorneys Jack Speight, Robert McCue and Patrick Crank.

They claimed the hospital violated its bylaws and procedures for peer review of physician behavior, engaged in practices that threatened patient safety, defamed them with allegations of Medicare fraud and theft of hospital equipment, and violated their due process of law guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

They also claimed WMC's directors and the five-member board of trustees of Memorial Hospital of Natrona County were negligent in their oversight, which allowed these violations to occur.

But Central Wyoming Neurosurgery did not need to name the county as a defendant, Crank said Tuesday.

During a public meeting in December 2005 about the hospital and the neurosurgeons, a commissioner stated the county delegates the management of its hospital assets to the Memorial Hospital board of trustees, he said.

They are the ultimate supervisory authority of the hospital assets and the Wyoming Medical Center's actions, and that's all the farther Crank and his fellow attorneys needed to go in naming defendants, he said.

Natrona County owns the hospital assets - worth about $200 million - leased by the nonprofit Wyoming Medical Center Inc. The rent - in effect, paid by the WMC - consists of caring for indigent patients and prisoners at the county jail. The lease is overseen by the board of trustees - appointed by the county commission with the consent of the WMC's own board of directors - which is responsible for safeguarding the hospital assets.

The county commissioners also appoint three members of the WMC's board of directors.

The commission is watching the progress of the lawsuit, Hendry said.

"Lawsuits are bad for the image of the hospital," he said.

But he added people need to defend their rights if they believe they have been injured.

"Ultimately, longterm, the patients suffer," Hendry said.

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@trib.com.

NewsTracker

Last we knew: Three neurosurgeons filed a $10 million federal lawsuit against the hospital and the Natrona County hospital board.

The latest: The county is covered by liability insurance to costs associated with the lawsuit.

What's next: The hospital will have an opportunity to file its answer to the lawsuit in federal court.