Hearings. The Medical Board Has Hearings.

As I have blogged before, I am following a case supposedly heard by the NC Medical Board this week (as of this morning, I have an e-mail in to the Board requesting a status report - since NOTHING has appeared on their website except some stale legal filings). It's a case well over two years old (at least that's when I got involved - pulled into a nightmare because I had the misfortune of being on-call that night) . . . a case that SCREAMS for a whole lot more than just a slap-on-the-hand.

I have not been invited to testify. Allow me to do so here.

This guy has hurt patients (repeatedly). He was doing it long before I came on the scene. In the case I was called in to manage, he callously INFLICTED a horrific head injury upon an innocent that, in any other setting, would have warranted charges for child abuse. Moreover he has placed colleagues - scrambling to deal with the consequences of his mis-steps (nurses and doctors and administrators/hospitals alike) - in the line of fire.

It's inexcusable. But my fear is that the Medical Board will find a way to excuse and minimize his behavior.

Meanwhile, every clinician (doctor or nurse) involved in (or looking in on) his screw-ups is supposed to keep his/her head down and say nothing. We're not supposed to have (strong) professional/personal opinions about what he's done. We have to worry about getting sued ourselves because our names are all over the charts of the cases we tried to clean up. We must cower in fear because, in our sick/warped medicolegal environment, the truth of what he's done still might not protect us from him suing us because we sad, "Enough already!". It's total BS.

With that in mind, I have no plans to identify the doctor or link the filings (already public record) or comment further until I see an outcome. The medical record speaks for itself. Nobody did this to him. He did it to himself.

It's a case much like the one in Asheboro that I rescued and reported (although in Asheboro it started off as being more about ignorance and arrogance than the intentional infliction of harm - unless you count what the doctor did to deflect blame afterwards). I fulfilled my duty as a physician as outlined by the Medical Board . . . only to be fired and have my life completely derailed for the trouble.

Not one mechanism of oversight really kicked in to protect me. If the Medical Board is so concerned about protecting patients, what about protecting the doctors who step in to protect patients?

I am SICK of elitist know-it-alls like Hillary and John/Elizabeth Edwards and the oh-so-experienced Barack Obama (all fricking lawyers) whining and pontificating about what is wrong with healthcare WHEN I KNOW WHAT'S WRONG (because I've experienced it first-hand - both as a doctor and a patient), yet have not been given the time of day!

As I composed the last post (and linked to a bio of the MD involved in the Asheboro fiasco - because I OWE HIM NOTHING), all of the talk about "transparency" and accountability" for doctors . . . the debates over tort reform and whether or not it should be easier for doctors to apologize to patients . . . flittered about in my noggin. And a thought occurred to me:

If doctors should apologize to patients for their mis-steps, why shouldn't they also be compelled to apologize to other doctors? There are a few around who owe me one.

And why shouldn't hospitals/hospital executives who forget that it's about "care you can trust" be held to the same standards as their doctors?

Why IS it that, in North Carolina, someone in a suit who puts their hand on a Bible and lies under Oath in order to save themselves some money, cannot be held accountable? For God's sake, I was in public service! Primary care doctors (especially Pediatricians) are in shortage! Why are Bob Morrison and Steve Eblin so Teflon-coated? Who do they know? What dirt do they have on who they know?

These people HURT ME. They HURT ME BADLY. Every waking day of my life since February 2, 1998 has been about trying to fix the professional injuries and very personal insults these men inflicted for no other reason than they wanted to maintain a stranglehold on the Pediatric "business" in Asheboro.

Meanwhile, lots of people who fancy themselves important, looked the other way and let them do it.

Maybe the booze helps with that, I dunno.

Bob and Steve did not just take away my job and utterly destroy career opportunities . . . they did not just humiliate me in my hometown . . . they did not just steal (by repeatedly lying) money I was rightfully owed . . . they stole a life.

Why shouldn't they be made to restore and apologize?

There are so many pressures upon doctors these days from forces outside of medicine - pressures that arguably make them susceptible to mistakes and lapses in judgment. Why is it that only doctors bear the burden of accountability? And why is it that medical accountability is so narrow in its focus?

These are questions I am probably going to pose to the Medical Board on June 30th. If they want to talk about accountability in health-care, we can talk about accountability in health-care.

In the wake of the bloodbath, I hope the News & Observer can spare a reporter.

God knows neither the Courier nor the N&R can pick up a pen.

Renfro and Robinson might have to apologize/admit they were wrong.

Update (6/20): Incredibly, the case was not heard - and has been continued until the Board's August meeting.

So there you have it folks. A Board-certified Pediatrician in public service at her hometown hospital stands up to arrogant/ignorant (not to mention overpaid) hospital executives and intervenes in a case (coming when the nurses called) to save a child's life. She is fired (the doctor she rescued barely gets slapped on the hand by the Medical Board - which does NOTHING to help her). Her practice is destroyed, her life and reputation are pummeled - in terms of getting a job anyway near her home, she's black-balled and "radio-active". When she fights back and seeks justice in the North Carolina Court system, she is ultlimately swindled by blatant perjury/contempt/fraud on the part of those same executives. No one in a position of medical or legal oversight will give her the time of day (least of all the NC Medical Board). They're "sorry" they cannot help her with "her problems."

They're not so sorry I think.

In stark contrast, the antics of a non-Board certified OB/GYN literally terrorize a small town nursing & medical staff for years . . . he callously inflicts injury on newborns & women alike . . . and is still skipping merrily along.

This is medico-legal oversight in North Carolina.