An Arkansas jury has awarded $1.3 million to a cardiologist who accused the leadership of a hospital then managed by Brentwood-based Quorum Health Resources of interfering with his efforts to revamp his department. The attorney for Barry Uretsky says the trouble started about four years when Quorum brought in Ted Woodrell to run Sparks Hospital, which two years ago was sold to HMA.

According to Thompson, Woodrell was contractually prohibited from interfering in “credentialing or medical judgments.” However, Woodrell pressured Uretsky and the other physicians to hire a cardiologist “who had not conducted medicine in more than five years,” Thompson explained.

The working relationship never improved and hospital management began “ignoring his (Uretsky’s) medical recommendations,” Thompson said.

Woodrell and his Sparks co-defendants have a month to appeal the verdict.