Mudge to hear status of settlement in breach of contract suit brought against anesthesiologist practice

Madison County Circuit Judge William Mudge is set to hear the status of a settlement in a dispute between a doctor and his former anesthesiology practice on Wednesday.

Details of the settlement reached between Dr. Michael Zelkind, Piasa Anesthesia Group LLC, and Dr. Thomas Brummert are not yet available in the case file.

Mudge is set to hear the settlement's status at 9 a.m.

Zelkind sued Brummert and the anesthesia group in 2007 over breach of contract claims.

Zelkind alleges that he was hired in February 2006 to work as one of Piasa's anesthesiologists and he undertook to fulfill the terms of his contract.

However, Zelkind claims, the defendants "routinely engaged in practices which deviated from and fell below the accepted standards of medical care."

The plaintiff alleges that the defendants did not use proper pre-anesthesia assessment forms, failed to personally meet with patients to explain the process, and used poor clinical judgment in planning how the anesthesia procedure would go.

Zelkind claims that after he reported the problems in May 2006, he was fired.

The suit seeks damages in excess of $50,000 per count on allegations of breach of contract, retaliatory discharge, and other claims.

The defendants deny the claims.

The suit has been ordered to mediation twice.

Most recently, Madison County Chief Judge Ann Callis ordered the case to mediation Feb. 9, 2011.

The case was announced as settled April 4, according to its docket sheet.

Edward Szewczyk represents Zelkind.

Donald Ohl represents the defendants.

Kim Kirn most recently acted as mediator in the case.

The case is Madison case number 07-L-163.