'Top docs' ad case opens

A debate over who has the most "top docs" in South Jersey, Virtua Health or Cooper Health System, remained unresolved yesterday after the first of what could be several sessions before Camden County Superior Court Judge Mary E. Colalillo.

Colalillo did lift a temporary restraining order, issued last week, that barred Virtua from boasting in an advertising campaign that it had the most top doctors.

The campaign can continue, Colalillo said yesterday, as long as Virtua eliminates the claim that the findings were based on an "independent study." Virtua also agreed to drop a claim that it had "twice as many" top physicians as any other health system.

A lawyer for Virtua, which has four hospitals in Camden and Burlington Counties , conceded that that claim was "an error."

Lawyers for Cooper have argued that the entire campaign is built around erroneous and misleading information.

Both sides are expected to offer more details in motions filed with Colalillo prior to an as-yet-unscheduled hearing.

"It's false advertising, that's what this is all about," said William Tambussi, the lawyer for Cooper Health System, after yesterday's session.

Philip H. Lebowitz, the lawyer for Virtua, told the judge the issue was merely "competing claims of who has the most top doctors."

Lebowitz said the advertising campaign was built around statistics culled from best-doctor articles that appeared in Philadelphia Magazine, New Jersey Monthly, South Jersey Magazine, and SJ Magazine.

Lebowitz said Virtua and its advertising agency, Star Group, ran the names through the Web sites of various hospitals, and Virtua emerged as the health system with the largest number of doctors cited in the articles.

But Tambussi argued that Virtua's less-than-scientific research was fraught with errors. Not the least of them, he said, was the fact that several doctors who are on Cooper's staff but are affiliated with Virtua were claimed by Virtua.

"They're including Cooper doctors in their count in order to gin up their numbers," Tambussi said.

The advertising campaign claims the most top doctors were "at" Virtua, Tambussi said. And that, he argued, is false.

The two sides also disagreed on the numbers. Virtua claims that in 2008 it had 220 top physicians to Cooper's 143.

Cooper claims it had 162 and that Virtua had "much less" than the 220 claimed because of the affiliation question.

Colalillo indicated that those issues would be part of the larger debate at the next hearing. Her major concern, she said, was ensuring that the public was not misled by the claim that the statistics were based on an "independent study."

Virtua has said that its claims were verified by a research company commissioned by the health system and its advertising agency.

Cooper contends that that is not an independent study. Colalillo granted Virtua the right to argue that it is, but said that for the time being, it cannot make the statement in its advertising campaign.