Sanford Health Denies Former Oncologist’s Retaliation Claims Amid Federal Court Review of Justifiable Termination

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By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 26, 2026, 9:44 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from People

The Federal Response to Whistleblower Allegations

Sanford Health has formally moved to dismiss claims of retaliatory termination brought forward by a former surgical oncologist in a Fargo federal court. The legal proceedings, which originated in state court before being elevated to the federal level this month, center on Dr. Sabha Ganai, who alleges she was fired for raising alarms regarding the accuracy of patient safety metrics. Sanford, however, maintains that its decision to sever ties with the surgeon was a legitimate exercise of management discretion and was conducted for just cause rather than in response to any protected whistleblower activity.

Divergent Views on Division Mortality Reports

The friction between the physician and the healthcare giant intensified in August 2023 when administrators flagged Ganai’s division for what they described as significantly worse outcomes. Internal reports allegedly indicated that the mortality ratio for her department was higher than the desired benchmarks, a finding that Ganai vehemently contested. According to court filings, the oncologist argued that her team routinely managed high risk cases involving dying patients transferred from other facilities, which naturally skewed the statistical expectations for patient survival.

The Dispute Over Benchmarking Data Accuracy

At the heart of the litigation is the reliability of data provided by Vizient, a healthcare performance company used by Sanford to rank its surgical quality. Ganai alleged that the administration relied on billing and coding data rather than clinical verification, a practice she claimed was improper for evaluating individual surgeon performance. Her complaint suggests that an internal analysis found only a minority of cases were correctly captured by this system, yet the health system allegedly continued its use to bolster its national hospital rankings.