Chief of Staff at Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital and VUMC Regional Director of Emergency Medicine Robert Scott Frankenfield was arrested on Dec. 11 after threatening his wife with violence and death. He has since been released from custody after posting a $2,000 bond.
VUMC placed Robert Scott Frankenfield on temporary administrative leave following his arrest, and his position within the company will be re-evaluated based on the outcome of his trial.
“We have no further comment on this personal matter,” a VUMC representative said in an email to The Hustler.
According to the police report, Robert Scott Frankenfield was intoxicated following a VUMC Christmas party and demanded that his wife drive him to Broadway. When he realized she was driving him home instead, he reportedly exited the car at an intersection in Madison, Tennessee.
As his wife continued driving home, she allegedly received explicit and threatening messages from Robert Scott Frankenfield. According to an arrest document, these messages warranted arrest due to their “malicious intent to frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress.”
“This is not a game. I made it clear. You chose your side, and it is not mine. I will destroy anyone against me. That is a fact. You have chosen war. I hope you are prepared. Did you count the guns? Did you remember the one in the car? You have lost all rights to me. I am no longer your friend, your lover, or husband. You are the embarrassment. And I am done with you,” Frankenfield wrote in a message to his wife.
The couple has seven children aged eight through 18. The wife told police that this is not the first instance of domestic issues between her and her husband.
Frankenfield moved to Wilson County, Tennessee, in 2009 and has been working for VUMC ever since. In a VUMC Residency Emergency Medicine faculty spotlight, Frankenfield shared that “the feeling of community” is what draws him to Vanderbilt’s emergency medicine.
“I love small town, rural hospitals and seeing the impact emergency medicine can have on the community as a whole,” Frankenfield said in the spotlight. “I like the feeling of community and contributing to something bigger than just what occurs on a clinical shift.”
