Haywood Regional Medical Center has filed a lawsuit against a former orthopedic doctor who left the county before a five-year agreement with the hospital was up.

The hospital administration claims they should be reimbursed more than $225,000 spent recruiting and marketing Dr. Richard Jones’ sports medicine venture. The hospital administration also wants Jones to reimburse it for the business lost when he departed.

“In 2004, while keeping his plans secret from HRMC, upon information and belief Dr. Jones decided to leave HRMC and start a competing sports medicine program in nearby Asheville,” the hospital administration claims in its lawsuit. Hospital administration said Jones’ “sudden departure” was timed to “cripple” HRMC.

But Jones claims the hospital administration left him no choice but to leave. When he was recruited, there were three other orthopedists. But one had retired, one quit and the third was permitted to become a spine-only specialist, resulting in “a burden thrust on Jones ... that Jones was unable to carry, did not agree to carry and which burden made it impossible for Jones to perform his duties,” states Jones’ response to the lawsuit.

However, according to other orthopedists, Jones was already plotting a move to Asheville before the others left.

Jones further claims that joining a sports medicine practice in Asheville did not preclude him from continuing to serve Haywood County patients and generating business for the hospital.

Hospital administration didn’t like that idea, however. HRMC President David Rice said he did not want to be a satellite branch of an Asheville-based sports medicine program.

“We wanted it driven by this community, for this community, in this community, not Asheville,” Rice said. “That would fragment what we consider to be a building and growing program in sports medicine.”

The hospital administration blocked Jones from scheduling any more surgeries or appointments in the hospital, even though Jones was the last orthopedist the hospital had who was still performing general orthopedic work.

“Any direction I turned to try to continue to bring patients to Haywood, they put up a road block,” Jones said in an interview.

At the same time, the hospital launched a legal tug-of-war over the business it helped Jones develop called Mountain SportsHealth. Both sides claimed that they owned rights to the name, logo and even the patients. Hospital administration accused Jones of actively luring away their sports medicine patients — including the Tuscola and Pisgah athletic programs. But Jones claims it wasn’t his fault that the school athletic programs followed him to his new practice.

“At no time did Jones solicit officials at the schools who were served by Mountain SportsHealth program to sever their relationship with HRMC. Rather the officials and the schools made their own decisions to sever the relationship,” Jones claimed.

In a countersuit, Jones accuses the hospital administration of trying to interfere in his patient relationship. The hospital attorney hand-delivered to the Tuscola and Pisgah coaches a copy of a lawsuit accusing Jones of unfair business practices.

“The sole purpose was to indicate or suggest to the coaches and athletic directors that Jones had committed some unlawful or improper acts against HRMC ... and to persuade these coaches and athletic directors to cease referring any of their injured student athletes to Jones for treatment,” Jones’ lawsuit states. Jones claimed he’s the one who deserves damages.

In terms of the monetary reimbursement the hospital is seeking, Jones responded that he his willing to pay the hospital back whatever he owes them for helping get his business going when he came to Haywood County in 2002, but that the hospital administrators never asked for reimbursement prior to filing the lawsuit nor have they offered documentation detailing what expenses were spent on his behalf.