Court upholds 3-month suspension of medical professor who refused to treat elderly patient, alleged record tampering

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In February last year, a complaint was filed with the medical school of a national university. The complainant said that after making an appointment and bringing their elderly mother, who was in her 90s, to the clinic, Professor A refused to see her. The complainant also told the hospital that the professor had made remarks to the effect that "elderly people are likely to tamper with their medical records" and that "it is problematic when such people come in."

Professor A was found to have committed disciplinary violations over this and other incidents and was suspended. The professor then filed a lawsuit challenging the decision.

The court, however, ruled that the disciplinary action was justified, saying Professor A's conduct "undermined patient safety and eroded trust in the medical care system."

Professor alleged record tampering without evidence, verbally abused colleagues, refused patient care

The Chuncheon District Court's Administrative Division 1, presided over by Judge Kim Byeong-cheol, ruled against Professor A on July 21 in a lawsuit the professor filed seeking to overturn a three-month suspension. The court also ordered Professor A to bear the legal costs.

According to the facts established by the court, Professor A had received the three-month suspension in November last year.

A disciplinary committee investigation found that even after police declined to open a case on Professor A's own complaint alleging falsification of medical records, the professor had written unsupported speculation — including references to "the possibility of test result tampering" — in the official medical records of four patients, and had refused to comply with the hospital's requests to correct the entries.

The investigation also found that Professor A had told the complainant's family that he "cannot provide medical care" and that "elderly people may tamper with their medical records." In September 2023, the professor had sent messages to a colleague suggesting the colleague "may be involved in a medical record falsification case" and had engaged in verbal abuse amounting to coercion of a confession. Three other colleagues were also subjected to Professor A's repeated allegations of record tampering, causing them stress and anxiety — a factor the court also weighed in its decision.

Professor A had filed a complaint with police in 2023, claiming that electronic inpatient records at the hospital had been altered and that someone had tampered with them. The university confirmed that no modifications had been made to the records and demonstrated through its network logs that there had been no hacking attempts, unauthorized edits or illegal data leaks. Police ultimately declined to open a case in 2024, citing a lack of evidence to identify any suspect, but Professor A continued to press the allegations.

After receiving the suspension, Professor A filed a lawsuit in April challenging the decision. During the proceedings, the professor argued that the disciplinary process had been procedurally unlawful and that the substance of the punishment was itself illegal. The court rejected both arguments.

Court: Professor 'destroyed trust in hospital's medical system'

The first-instance court said that under the Standard Korean Language Dictionary, "tampering" means fabricating something to make it appear true, and that the term therefore implies test results were falsified after the fact. On that basis, the court declined to accept Professor A's characterization.

The court then said that by recording unsubstantiated claims of test result tampering in medical records without objective evidence, and by refusing to comply with legitimate requests for correction, Professor A had violated the duty of good faith and committed a disciplinable offense.

The court added that Professor A did not appear to have held any objective evidence to support the claims, and noted that police had notified the professor that they would not open a case. It also found that the professor had verbally abused a colleague via KakaoTalk messages, calling the colleague a "murder suspect," and said the conduct had caused the colleague psychological distress.

The court further found that Professor A had refused to treat an elderly patient while citing the possibility of medical record tampering. It said the conduct "destroyed trust in the hospital's medical care system" and "constituted an act that stripped the patient of the opportunity to receive medical services."

The court also ruled that the level of discipline — a three-month suspension — was lawful.

The court said Professor A had "treated unsubstantiated suspicions as established fact, damaging trust in the hospital's medical care system," and that the misconduct "caused serious disruption to operations and cannot be considered minor."

It concluded that under the applicable disciplinary standards, Professor A's misconduct must be viewed as serious, or at minimum as the result of gross negligence, and that a three-month suspension represented the lowest level of discipline available within the applicable range.

The ruling has not yet been finalized. Professor A has appealed, and the second-instance proceedings are set to be heard by the Seoul High Court's Chuncheon out-of-court panel.

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