HUNTINGTON – A former Huntington physician says he and his wife says they were victims of retaliation by some of the area’s largest medical providers.
Hofeldt
Dr. Matthew J. Hofeldt filed his complaint last month in Cabell Circuit Court against Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, University Physicians & Surgeons Inc. doing business as Marshall Health, Marshall Health Network Inc. dba Mountain Health Network and St. Mary’s Medical Center Inc.
Hofeldt is a general surgeon and was medical director of St. Mary’s Surgical Weight Loss Solutions. He now works at Carson Tahoe Health in Nevada.
Hofeldt says the defendants were his joint employers who conspired to wrongfully terminate him in violation of the West Virginia Patient Safety Act because of his “patient advocacy and outspokenness regarding patient safety concerns.”
“This was a horrific series of events in which the defendants not only retaliated against a medical doctor for patient advocacy, but ultimately caused a West Virginia physician to leave West Virginia,” the complaint states. “These defendants should and must be held accountable as this cannot be permitted to happen again.”
Hofeldt entered into an employment agreement with St. Mary’s on August 7, 2020, that went into effect September 1, 2020, for a term of five years. That’s when St. Mary’s acquired Ultimate Health Services Inc. dba Huntington Internal Medicine Group (HIMG). On September 9, 2024, Hofeldt started employment with Marshall’s School of Medicine and Marshall Health.
He says he was “outspoken and critical” of defendants’ medical staff throughout his employment regarding patient safety issues, especially St. Mary’s. But he says these concerns were not adequately addressed. He eventually was told to stop directing these concerns to staff and instead present them to department heads or administration. In November 2024, he began using the defendants’ “MIDAS” reporting system to compel defendants to address his concerns.
“It was Dr. Hofeldt’s belief that officially recording patient safety complaints would make it much more difficult for the defendants to ignore their dangerous behaviors and negative patient outcomes,” the complaint states. “However, these official reports greatly upset the defendants.”
The complaint includes a few examples of Hofeldt’s reports. One tells how Hofeldt intervened to ensure a patient was taken to a floor with cardiac monitoring. The patient had a heart attack, and Hofeldt says the patient’s life was saved because he was promptly taken for cardiac invention. He says that wouldn’t have happened if hadn’t arranged to have the patient on a cardiac floor.
“Almost immediately after Dr. Hofeldt utilized the MIDAS reporting system, the defendants created and advanced a false and malicious investigation concerning Dr. Hofeldt’s workplace behavior which lasted for months,” the complaint states.
The complaint says the investigation involved an unspecified complaint of Hofeldt creating a hostile work environment, but he says he never was presented with any written documentation of the complaint or any details about it.
“Defendants went to great lengths to intimidate Dr. Hofeldt and even retained outside legal counsel, David A. Amsbary, Esq., of Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC, to lead this pretextual investigation,” the complaint states. “Furthermore, the defendants failed to follow their own policies and procedures for conducting a workplace investigation in an effort to intimidate, retaliate and exert pressure on Dr. Hofeldt for his patient advocacy.”
Hofeldt says he and his wife – Lana Hofeldt, PA-C – were required to retain legal counsel “to protect their livelihoods and reputation” as they say they were subjected to a “witch hunt in an effort to silence them and an attempt to force them to resign their employment.”
Hofeldt says he and his wife ultimately did resign under duress and feared their medical professional careers would be irreparably harmed by the defendants’ retaliatory conduct. Lana Hofeldt submitted her resignation on January 30, 2025, and Matthew Hofeldt did so on March 19, 2025. Both call it constructive discharge because working conditions were “so intolerable a reasonable person would be compelled to resign.”
After Hofeldt resigned, St. Mary’s Director of Human Resources Chris Mokas issued a letter on April 11 saying “there was no evidence that (Hofeldt) created a hostile work environment.” Hofeldt already had accepted other employment.
“Of course, it was the defendants’ intent all along to have him separate his employment following a pretextual investigation that lasted four months,” the complaint states.
Hofeldt says the defendants also have failed to pay him for his accumulated paid time off balance and his Bariatric Directorship wages.
He accuses the defendants of violations of the PSA, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act. He seeks economic, compensatory, emotional, general, liquidated and punitive damages as well as pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
Hofeldt is being represented by Joseph L. Amos Jr. and Karen H. Miller of Miller & Amos in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Paul Farrell.
Cabell Circuit Court case number 25-C-290
