He Was a Star Surgeon at Brown Health, Now He is Mired in Litigation and Disciplined by RIDOH
GoLocalProv News Team
He Was a Star Surgeon at Brown Health, Now He is Mired in Litigation and Disciplined by RIDOH
It was big news.
“James G. Fingleton, M.D., has been named chief of clinical cardiac surgery operations and quality at Lifespan’s Cardiovascular Institute, southeastern New England’s largest and most comprehensive cardiac program. Fingleton will assume this role on April 1 when he joins University Cardiovascular Surgical Associates in Providence,” Lifespan, now Brown Health wrote in 2017.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“The appointment is a homecoming for Fingleton, who was a member of The Miriam Hospital’s open-heart surgery program for 17 years and later was a key member of the combined Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam open-heart program,” said the hospital group. “Fingleton returns to Lifespan from Southcoast Health System, where he served as chief of cardiovascular surgery for five years. Fingleton was responsible for expanding cardiac services at the Massachusetts-based health system during his tenure.”
“Dr. Fingleton’s strong commitment to providing individualized care, focused on each patient’s unique needs, along with his extensive experience and training will be a valuable addition to the Lifespan cardiac surgery program,” said William G. Cioffi, M.D., surgeon-in-chief at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital, and chairman of the department of surgery at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in 2017.
Fingleton left the employment of Brown Health six years later.
A few months later, Fingleton was sued for malpractice by Linda O’Brien, the widow of Kevin O’Brien. Brown Health is also named in that lawsuit, as well as four other physicians and his surgery group.
In November 2025, Fingleton sued Brown Health and its affiliate, University Cardiovascular Surgical Associates (UCSA).
According to Fingleton, when he was recruited back to Rhode Island, his salary and bonus were nearly $1 million a year. The lawsuit cites his letter of agreement, "This letter stated, in part, ‘Your base salary will be $850,000 with a potential $130,000 bonus achievable after meeting mutually agreed upon metrics,' and 'Enclosed is our standard Employment Agreement. This letter supersedes that document in the event of any differences.’”
He accepted that agreement. He was the million-dollar man.
In his lawsuit, Fingleton claims, “Despite no decline in performance, UCSA terminated Dr. Fingleton in 2023, citing several pretexts to distract from the true cause: unwarranted personal animus by UCSA’s chief of surgery and his allies.”
In between his return in 2017 and his departure, Fingleton claims in his lawsuit that “Approximately six months after returning to UCSA, Dr. Fingleton presented Dr. [William] Cioffi and others with a list of recommended quality improvement projects.”
“To that end, Dr. Fingleton advised that Dr. [Frank] Sellke, then-Chief of UCSA’s Cardiothoracic Surgery division, lacked the technical skill to perform procedures on patients. As grounds for this opinion, Dr. Fingleton cited Dr. Sellke’s frequent appearance on a monthly morbidity and mortality list, concerns from members of the Department of Anesthesia regarding Dr. Sellke’s competence, and examples of patients who suffered serious, and in some cases fatal, consequences as a direct result of Dr. Sellke’s clinical conduct. UCSA did not heed Dr. Fingleton’s recommendation to prohibit Dr. Sellke from operating on patients because, on information and belief, (i) Dr. Sellke was an ally of Dr. Cioffi and (ii) UCSA did not want to jeopardize the significant funds that Dr. Sellke’s research efforts brought into the Hospital. After raising these concerns, UCSA began to punish Dr. Fingleton, gradually removing the portion of Dr. Fingleton’s title concerning ‘Operations and Quality’ and related responsibilities,” claims Fingleton’s lawsuit.
GoLocal reached out to Dr. Selke, asking him for comment on Fingleton’s claims.
“I would disagree with this as there is no evidence to support it. If anything like this is published, you will end up in court,” said Dr. Selke.
GoLocal, in response to Dr. Selke’s response, wrote, “We are citing his allegations in a lawsuit. Have you seen the lawsuit?”
Dr. Selke wrote in response, ”No, I have not. Fingleton is just pissed off because he was fire[d] for being a disruptive physician and can't find a job.”
GoLocal forwarded to Dr. Selke a copy of the lawsuit.
Later, Dr. Selke, in an email to GoLocal, wrote, “I am not going to dignify these false allegations with a comment other than to say the mortality and morbidity statistics of all the cardiovascular surgeons were and are compiled according the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database, and the outcomes of all surgeons were and continue to be excellent. Dr Fingleton made false derogatory statements about all of the Rhode Island cardiac surgeons before and after he was terminated.”
“For the 18-month period from April 1, 2018, through September 30, 2019, Dr. Fingleton continued to perform at the highest level of any UCSA surgeon. While there were no pre-established performance metrics for this period, UCSA paid Dr. Fingleton $195,000 in bonus compensation in recognition of his performance," Fingleton's lawsuit states.
“After requesting that Dr. Fingleton submit a copy of his curriculum vitae on Brown University letterhead in 2020, the Medical School named him an Assistant Professor. At that time, however, there were only four months left in the then-current three-year academic appointment cycle and the Medical School informed Dr. Fingleton that he would need to re-apply for the next cycle if he wished to maintain his appointment,” writes Fingleton’s suit.
Further, the lawsuit states, “Dr. Fingleton reapplied for the next academic appointment cycle and the Medical School rejected his application on the grounds that Dr. Fingleton did not demonstrate sufficient academic activity in the prior three years. The Medical School’s rejection of Dr. Fingleton’s application on this basis was particularly striking because it had just recently named him Assistant Professor, knowing the full extent of Dr. Fingleton’s academic activity.”
“Dr. Fingleton’s purportedly insufficient academic activity was merely a pretext for the Department of Surgery to deny him an academic appointment to further diminish his status. At that time, Dr. Cioffi and Dr. Sellke were heavily involved in decisions concerning academic appointment and promotion, including the decision to deny an academic appointment to Dr. Fingleton,” claims the suit.
According to the suit, there were also disputes over the performance matrix and bonuses.
Second Contract
Fingleton and the USCA then reportedly began to negotiate a new contract.
According to Fingleton’s dispute, “Though the 2017 Employment Agreement terminated on March 31, 2022, UCSA continued to employ and compensate Dr. Fingleton after the termination date according to the 2017 Employment Agreement’s terms. On or about April 20, 2022, UCSA offered to renew Dr. Fingleton’s employment for a three-year term with base compensation of $900,000 per year with the potential to earn bonus compensation of 10% of the base salary upon the completion of agreed-upon metrics.”
“Dr. Fingleton maintained that this offer was low relative to the volume and quality of his performance. In a July 7, 2022, email, Dr. Fingleton submitted a counteroffer to renew his employment for a five-year term with base compensation of $1,500,000 and no bonus structure. In a July 11, 2022, letter, UCSA rejected Dr. Fingleton’s counteroffer and stated that the April 20, 2022, offer still stood. UCSA added, ‘In terms of your quality withhold for the past year, I agree that you have met the requirements, and we will pay that out accordingly,’” states the suit.
“In a July 25, 2022 letter (the '2022 Offer Letter'), UCSA made its 'final offer' to Dr. Fingleton of a four-year employment term with base compensation of $1,100,000 per year and no bonus structure. On or about August 7, 2022, Dr. Fingleton countersigned the 2022 Offer Letter, returned it to UCSA, and began working according to its terms shortly thereafter. Indeed, Dr. Fingleton continued to work for UCSA for several months without incident, and in October 2022, UCSA began compensating him at the rate set out in the 2022 Offer Letter,” according to the suit.
“In a September 6, 2022 letter, Lifespan reiterated the details regarding Dr. Fingleton’s annual allotment of vacation and service time, and stated, ‘Thank you for your past contributions to the Cardiovascular Service Line, and with your new contract, we will look forward to working with you as we expect to grow and expand the cardiac surgery program,’” asserts the lawsuit.
There were more disputes between Fingleton and USCA on a range of issues.
Complaints
Fingleton identified in the lawsuit that he was the subject of complaints.
“In a July 27, 2023 letter, the Rhode Island Hospital Medical Staff Association’s (the 'Medical Staff') Medical Executive Committee (the 'Executive Committee') informed Dr. Fingleton that it voted to commence an ad hoc investigation into allegations of “unprofessional conduct and not following proper OR processes” in accordance with the Hospital’s Medical Staff Bylaws (the 'Bylaws') after receiving an unspecified number of complaints from unidentified sources,” states the suit.
In a July 27, 2023 letter, the Rhode Island Hospital Medical Staff Association’s (the 'Medical Staff') Medical Executive Committee (the 'Executive Committee') informed Dr. Fingleton that it voted to commence an ad hoc investigation into allegations of “unprofessional conduct and not following proper OR processes” in accordance with the Hospital’s Medical Staff Bylaws (the 'Bylaws') after receiving an unspecified number of complaints from unidentified sources.
The dispute continued, but by the end of 2023. Charges and counter-charges continued until, as a Fingleton’s lawsuit states, “In a December 22, 2023 letter, the Hospital’s Board of Directors informed Dr. Fingleton that it approved the Executive Committee’s recommendation to terminate Dr. Fingleton’s Medical Staff appointment and privileges effective immediately due to this failure to sign the Consent Agreement.”
In the 27-page lawsuit, Fingleton claims breach of contract and violation of the Whistleblowers Act. He seeks recovery of financial damages.
GoLocal sought comment from Fingleton’s lawyers, Nicholas B. Carter and Daniel M. Curran of the Boston-based law firm Todd & Weld LLP.
They did not respond to a request for comment.
Then, on Wednesday, GoLocal secured a copy of a disciplinary action involving Fingleton by the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH).
“On January 2, 2024, Rhode Island Hospital notified the Board that the Board of Trustees of Rhode Island Hospital voted to terminate the membership and privileges of [Fingleton] from the Rhode Island Hospital medical staff. The privileges were terminated based upon previous complaints of unprofessional conduct that were reviewed by the Rhode Island Hospital Medical Executive Committee. The Medical Executive Committee provided [Fingleton] with a consent agreement that required, in part, attendance at two courses relating to interprofessional communications. When [Fingleton] refused to agree to the hospital's proposed consent agreement, his privileges to Rhode Island Hospital were terminated,” according to RIDOH.
“[Fingleton] appeared before the Investigative Committee of the Board on April 24, 2024, and, in consideration of the loss of privileges at Rhode Island Hospital, the Committee found that Respondent was in violation of R.I. Gen. Laws§ 5-37-5.1(21 ), which states, in pertinent part, that 'disciplinary action relating to a membership on any medical staff or in any professional association or society while under disciplinary investigation by any of those authorities or bodies" constitutes unprofessional conduct,'" wrote RIDOH.
Further, RIDOH said as part of Fingleton’s reprimand incorporated in the consent decree, he must pay a fee of $1,100 to the agency.
And, he must “successfully pass a course such as the Center for Personalized Education for Physicians (CPEP), Improving Interpersonal Communications. Any course other than the aforementioned CPEP course must be pre approved by the Board. The course must be completed within six (6) months from the ratification of this Consent Order.” The consent decree between Fingleton and RIDOH was executed on Wednesday.
In the following months, Fingleton's legal cases will play out in multiple courtrooms in the Providence Superior Court.