A former visiting associate at the UI Hospital and Clinics has sued his former employers for a breach of an employment contract, according to court documents released on Jan. 22.

Ravi Sood worked in the nuclear-medicine department at the UI beginning in July 2008.

Less than a month after Sood gained full clinical privileges, Michael Graham, the director of nuclear medicine in the Carver College of Medicine, told Sood he was going to revoke his clinical privileges, according to court documents. Sood was without such privileges for roughly two months.

In addition, Graham allegedly forced Sood to sign a document that reduced his time commitment to 55 percent time.

According to the lawsuit, Sood is alleging Graham and the UI did not follow the correct processes outlined by the UIHC before they terminated his privileges.

Toward the end of Sood’s employment at the UI, he applied for a job at a VA Hospital in Louisiana.

When the hospital requested further information about the revocation of Sood’s clinical privileges, UIHC officials sent a letter of explanation, but Sood was not hired and has since been unable to obtain employment, according to the suit.

The UI, UIHC, state Board of Regents, and Graham are named as defendants in the suit.

— by Sam Lane