Penn State Cancer Institute Failed Leadership Exposed

On Thursday, November 20th, Spotlight PA exposed a damning internal review of the Penn State Cancer Institute: chemotherapy overdoses, treatment delays that let cancers spread unchecked, incomplete patient records, and a toxic workplace driving mass exodus of doctors and staff. The article, titled “The Institute: Chemotherapy mistakes, treatment delays, a ‘toxic’ workplace: Penn State’s internal reviews found a top doctor’s alarming errors and disruptive leadership. He remains in charge of the cancer center” details the landscape at the Penn State Cancer Institute under the leadership of Dr Raymond Hohl.

For years, Penn State continued to focus on attempts to achieve a designation that would serve as a ‘gold star on their lapel’ rather than prioritizing patient care, despite numerous concerns being raised both internally and externally. Now, just one day after publication of this expose on November 21st, Hohl resigned as director. Too little, too late, and please note Penn State did not fire him.

Penn State’s response? A deflection: “We believe the reporting by this outlet is based almost entirely on materials more than two years old and it does not provide an accurate representation of Penn State Cancer Institute (PSCI) as it exists today. During the last two years—we have made significant changes to PSCI’s leadership, staffing, operations, clinical capabilities and research processes.” Yet the facts remain: patient harm, buried reports, and ongoing risks tell a different story. I urge you to read both Spotlight PA pieces here and here.

As outlined in these reports, the suffering inflicted on patients, families, and staff is unconscionable.

In 2024, as the lone dissenting voice on the Penn State Board of Trustees, I demanded information about the situation at Penn State Health’s Hershey Medical Center, including the Cancer Institute’s pursuit of the national cancer center designation and its disastrously mismanaged transplant center, now shuttered (read my meeting report with my full quotes here).

The events of the past 48 hours are a grim validation of every warning I sounded. I stood alone, and my repeated requests for information about the Cancer Institute were stonewalled. As Spotlight PA now reveals, the explosive December 2022 report documenting those failures, which contained much of the information I had requested, had already landed on President Bendapudi’s desk and was being deliberately withheld from most trustees, and shared only with a select few in leadership who chose to bury it rather than act.

These failures have exacted a brutal toll: lives endangered, Penn State’s reputation shredded, and the potential for multimillion-dollar lawsuits looming. I cast the sole NO vote against the Penn State Health Board of Directors reappointments of Bendapudi, Board Chair David Kleppinger, and former trustees Keith Masser, Steve Wagman, and Mark Dambly. They all knew, or should have known, these details and actively concealed them. They are still on the board of Penn State Health.

When I raised alarms both in private and public sessions, my fellow board members stared like I’d grown three heads, then rubber-stamped the appointments without deliberation or debate. Even now, their dismissive statement tries to sweep years of mismanagement under the rug.

Make no mistake: lives hang in the balance and I take no pleasure in being proven right at such terrible cost. This isn’t about a poorly managed endowment or questionable ticket deals (both of which have meaningful negative impacts on the University and its stakeholders). It is the sacred duty of university governance to safeguard patient’s safety and the institution’s mission. This Board’s loss of institutional control may place Penn State in perilous financial calamity.

They voted me off the board last June for my diligence and devotion to duty, and for asking too many tough questions. Vindication tastes bitter when it comes at such a cost, but the record must now show: every alarm I sounded was justified.

Now is the time for real accountability, not excuses. The Penn State community deserves better. Patients deserve better.

As a former Penn State alumni-elected trustee, I enjoy sharing my personal observations, concerns, and ideas about Penn State. I invite you to contact me with your opinions so that we can engage in meaningful conversations on those topics: barry@barryfenchak.com.