OHA director tells lawmakers she will continue occasional clinical shifts at Stanford; committee raises ethics concerns

Sejal Hathi, director of the Oregon Health Authority, told the Joint Subcommittee on Human Services on Feb. 20 that she will continue occasional unpaid clinical shifts as a hospitalist at Stanford University and that she had sought legal advice concluding out-of-state clinical practice would not create a conflict of interest with her duties as OHA director.

Hathi told the committee she would average about one clinical shift per month, had completed three shifts since her November appointment and would not expect to travel for clinical work during her upcoming maternity leave; she said the governor had given permission for the work. “I was trained as a hospitalist,” Hathi said, noting hospital-based inpatient care cannot be done remotely and that outpatient practice would not be…