BRISTOL, Tenn. (WJHL)- Ballad Health CEO Alan Levine made his first public remarks after the Chief Executive Officer at Bristol Regional Medical Center, Greg Neal, recently resigned.

Levine said an employee went through the proper protocols and procedures in order to report an incident with Neal, and a surgeon, identified as Nathan Smith.

Both Neal and Smith are no longer employed by Ballad, according to Levine.

On Thursday, Levine went into detail about the incident saying in part, “It was a surgical procedure, it was a fairly routine surgical procedure and prior to the procedure, the CEO had been invited to observe…what is a little unusual is being asked to scrub in on a procedure and then, of course, it is even more unusual to be standing there and be offered the scalpel and that is what occurred,” Levine said. “The physician prior to the incision offered, according to Greg, offered the scalpel to Greg and asked him if he wanted to do the initial incision under the doctor’s supervision. Doctor was right there. The mistake that Greg made was he said yes. He should have said no at that point”

Levine said after the internal investigation. Ballad submitted its facts to the state regulatory agency.

The patient that was involved in this incident during this surgery was also notified and has since had multiple discussions with Ballad Health officials, according to Levine.

The person that reported the incident to Ballad Health officials did so using an anonymous hotline.

Levine said in part, “We have a private company who takes the calls. They dictate or they transcribe the calls to us and they turn the content of the information over to our compliance officer and that is how an investigation commences.”

You can watch the entire news briefing on our WJHL Facebook page below.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE