Deranged midlevel goes berserk on PPP physician's Facebook page, starts making veiled threats
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21 years into the 21st century, one would think that most people who don't reside under a rock would be familiar with the old adage (warning?) that everything on the internet is permanent. But as with everything in healthcare and medicine, there are exceptions. Consider, for example, an Alabama physician assistant by the name of Kristin Lewis Landham. She was born in 1983, which, coincidentally, is the same year the Internet was born! I guess we'll have to give her a pass for the extremely naughty online behavior that follows...
Per openly available social media, licensing records, general web sources, and LinkedIn, PA Kristin is employed with Symbol Health Solutions as well as in the cardiology department at Princeton Baptist Medical Center of Birmingham, AL. More specifically, she appears to be affiliated with or employed by the group Cardiology, P.C. of Birmingham, as evidenced by the above supervising physician license. Â She also appears to be employed at an urgent care in Homewood, AL.
What the hell happened?
On May 14, 2021, esteemed pediatrician, Patients At Risk co-author and Physicians for Patient Protection supporter Niran Al-Agba, MD posted this fairly innocuous article to her personal Facebook page:
Then, for some inexplicable reason more than two months later on July 9, 2021 at 9:16 AM EDT, PA Kristin decided to necro-bump the comment section with an unprovoked blitzkrieg attack on Dr. Al-Agba, apparently in reference to her book.
For reference, Patients at Risk is an excellent book that expounds on the dangers of the proliferation of lesser-trained midlevel providers such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners in medicine, and the dangers of using them to replace eminently more qualified physicians, often with poor or no physician supervision, in the name of corporate medicine and profit over patients.
It's truly mind-boggling that PA Kristin is so vehemently obstinate about her uninformed opinions, having not even read the book. How much more Dunning–Kruger can you get? Well, it turns out we're just getting started.
The (lack of) self-awareness is hilariously astounding.
"You would like me if you met me. I am a capable provider."
You got angry after reading just the bio? Well, just wait until you read the whole book! 🤣
"Did you know PA school is harder to get into than med school right now??"
Why PA Kristin, we didn't! Maybe because 1) that's not true, or at least difficult to objectively prove and 2) competitiveness of admissions isn't a valid measure of the rigor of education and training or a meaningful reflection of the caliber of the applicant pool. Having a bunch of people with lesser academic qualifications competing for an easier, lower-paying job isn't exactly something to be proud of.
Wow, real rich, calling a physician a hypocrite while simultaneously claiming that you "practice medicine". No, you don't practice medicine. Physicians practice medicine. You practice an abbreviated from of healthcare, under the supervision of a physician, that you learned in your two-year Physician Assistant Studies program at the University of Alabama, a program that only requires a minimum GPA of 3.0 for admission (for reference, the UAB School of Medicine boasts an average matriculating student GPA of 3.7-3.8).
"My training, experience, intelligence, empathy, and other parts of me are what make me BETTER at the practice of medicine than the physicians in my practice."
Holy shit, is this lady for real? Un-fucking-believable. Did you forget "anger", by the way? Attempting to even dignify this absurd claim by PA Kristin is a surefire way to massacre some brain cells, but we'll try anyway. It's not clear which group of physicians/what practice she's referring to (although Kristin later denies that she was referring to the cardiologists she works with). So where does that leave us?
According to the Alabama medical board, PA Kristin has registration agreements in place with three other physicians - a psychiatrist, family physician, and a pulmonologist. We're still eagerly awaiting for Kristin to clarify who she's better than, but suffice it to say, two years of PA school don't really hold a candle to four years of medical school followed by 3-4 years of residency and in the case of pulmonology and critical care, another 2-3 years of fellowship. Don't let your hubris come back to bite you in the ass, Kristin!
Oh, and if your "evidence" that PA school is harder to get into than medical school is a screenshot from Google, you need to do better. Seriously.
PA Kristin's ludicrous claims are further annihilated by some more members of the peanut gallery:
For whatever reason, PA Kristin then starts responding under what appears to one of her family member's accounts. Judging by her reaction, it seems that someone finally tipped PA Kristin's employer off to her Facebook rampage.
It really says something about the quality and rigor of a physician's knowledge, training, and experience if a MD/DO just out of residency can supervise a midlevel provider with 15 years of experience. The meaning of this is probably lost on PA Kristin, though.
And "You tried to destroy my career"? How ironic. We really appreciate her generosity in trying to share credit for such a worthy accomplishment that she single-handedly pulled off by herself. Also, a pro tip: if you're actually worried about your career as a healthcare professional, it's probably a good idea to refrain from making veiled threats potentially implying great bodily harm.
Apparently, PA Kristin also review-bombed the Facebook page of Dr. Al-Agba's pediatrics practice, and encouraged her "tribe" of stay-at-home moms to do so:
Round Two: Twitter
We've since heard from one source that as of July 15th, the Alabama State Board is reportedly aware of this whole trainwreck and has warned PA Kristin to remove her social media comments and that if she contacts Dr. Al-Agba again, action will be taken. So naturally, what does our star physician assistant do? Create more social media posts, and contact Dr. Al-Agba again, this time on Twitter!
Personally, we'd be more worried about hearing from someone else's lawyer, but you do you!
Wow, self-inflicted wound much?
"Y'all need to get a hobby"...says the person who necro'ed a Facebook post more than two months after it was posted to go on an unprovoked verbal rampage. And if being able to catch and release bugs in the clinic (hopefully they come out unscathed) is supposed to be some sort of redeeming quality for a healthcare professional...good job, I guess?
We'd be very careful about public accusations such as this. Dr. Al-Agba has publicly stated multiple times that she did not call PA Kristin's employer. Unless PA Kristin has evidence to the contrary, it would be wise to refrain from making such claims.
And what blog is she referring to? Is it MidlevelWTF? 🤣 For the record, MidlevelWTF is an independent entity not affiliated with Dr. Al-Agba in any way.
It's ironic that PA Kristin is accusing others of "silencing", when in fact, she's been the most vocal one! Anyone with an ounce left of self-preservation would have shut their trap ages ago.
And to really top things off, this healthcare professional had the cajones to go after the good doctor's deceased father.
There's a distinct difference between not agreeing with someone versus throwing an explosive tantrum on public social media and then proceeding to threaten a physician after you get called out for it. Jesus Christ, we would hate to be at Kristin's state medical board hearing, if there is one. Which there probably will be, if she continues like this.