The nonprofit Wyoming Medical Center Inc. wants the federal court in Wyoming to suspend a lawsuit filed by Central Wyoming Neurosurgery because multiple court cases are putting an unfair hardship on the hospital.

"All of plaintiff's pending complaints involve the same parties, the same issues, the same conduct, the same transactions, and the same factual assertions in support of their claims," hospital attorney Scott Ortiz wrote in a court filing. "It is simply an undue hardship and inequitable to require WMC to defend the actions filed against it by the same plaintiffs."

The Central Wyoming Neurosurgery's three neurosurgeons contend the hospital violated its bylaws and procedures, engaged in practices that threatened patient safety, defamed them with allegations of Medicare fraud and theft of hospital equipment, and violated their due process of law guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, according to the complaint filed Jan. 28.

Some of the dispute centers on a biased peer review initiated after March 23, 2004, when Dr. Tom Kopitnik performed two operations at staggered times, with a physician's assistant finishing one of the procedures.

The neurosurgeons - Kopitnik, Robert Narotzky and Debra Steele - resigned their privileges to practice at the Wyoming Medical Center in November 2005.

Ortiz has responded that the neurosurgeons don't have grounds to sue because they voluntarily resigned their privileges.

In its March 7 filing, the hospital asked U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Cheyenne to suspend, or "stay," the lawsuit because of similar lawsuits in 7th District Court in Natrona County.

The first was filed on April 11, 2005, alleging Drs. Mary MacGuire and Anne MacGuire defamed Kopitnik with comments about his ability to get another job. The state court has dismissed Anne MacGuire from this lawsuit, which is scheduled for trial.

The second was filed on Oct. 26, 2006, alleging the hospital and key employees filed a false police report saying Kopitnik had stolen medical supplies from the WMC at the time he and the other neurosurgeons resigned their privileges.

The federal lawsuit involves many of the same facts and defendants as the state court lawsuits, Ortiz wrote. The similar federal lawsuit constitutes "claim splitting," with at least two lawsuits pending in different courts, and puts an unnecessary burden on the hospital, he wrote.

The defendants - who are being sued collectively and individually for $10 million - are the Board of Trustees of the Memorial Hospital of Natrona County; the WMC; the hospital's board of directors; and hospital officials including former Board Chairman Mike Reid, former CEO Pam Fulks, current CEO (and former senior vice president) Vickie Diamond, and former perioperative services head Mary Jane O'Connor.

The request for the stay in the federal lawsuit does not involve the board of trustees of the Memorial Hospital of Natrona County, an entity that oversees the WMC's lease of Natrona County's hospital assets.

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@trib.com.