Alex Dodd/flickr A pharmacist who sought reinstatement of her license, and was denied, lost her appeal August 25. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled that she had not properly demonstrated her rehabilitation and ability to practice pharmacy with reasonable skill (Markowitz v. Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs, State Board…
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Ophelia Lee had been licensed as a nurse for seven years when her employer, Eden Medical Center, began to doubt her mental fitness for nursing practice. Lee was examined by five mental health professionals, two of whom concluded she suffered from delusions that impaired her ability to safely function as…
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The California Medical Board, through Executive Director Kimberly Kirchmeyer, investigated Dr. Geoffrey Phillips, a licensed psychiatrist, based on an allegation that he had a sexual relationship with one of his patients, A.M. After her therapy with Dr. Phillips ended, A.M. divorced her husband, S.M. S.M. then filed a complaint with…
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Plaintiffs’ operative complaint alleged that decedent George Fenimore, Jr., suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, was prone to wandering away from home, and had begun to suffer an increased number of falls, leading his family to admit him to a local hospital. He was transferred from that hospital to Resnick…
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Physicians would suffer irreparable harm if forced to comply with new Texas rules requiring face-to-face physical examination of patients prior to prescription of any dangerous drug or controlled substance, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas held May 29 (Teladoc, Inc. v. Texas Medical Board). The ruling,…
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A Board of Psychology did not err in choosing to revoke a psychologist's license once it learned that a conditional indefinite suspension, with jurisdiction to revoke, was not possible, the District Court of Appeal of Florida held June 6 (William Kale, Ph.D. v. Department of Health). The board hoped to…
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The traditional appointed board model for regulating the professions has been a fixture of state government for well over a century. But new models of delivering services, plus a pro-competition climate at the state and federal level, may be threatening the classic regulatory structure. The February 25 U.S. Supreme Court…
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Neil A. Van Dyck, 64, of Roseville, California, pleaded guilty to health care fraud, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced. According to court documents, Van Dyck was a California-licensed podiatrist who operated a podiatry practice in Roseville called Placer Podiatry. Van Dyck offered “spa”-like treatments and performed routine foot…
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The Arizona state attorney general's office denied a request by the state's former medical board director to pay legal fees she incurred from a high-profile 2013 investigation by the state ombudsman. In a scathing report last October, the ombudsman found that both the director and deputy director ordered state employees…
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A board's decision not to rescind a settlement agreement with a doctor, which the doctor said was offered to her without proper disclosures, was affirmed by the Court of Appeals of Iowa, in an August 27 ruling (DeLouis v. Iowa Board of Medicine). In 2012, the Iowa Board of Medicine…
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