The NC Medical Board And Transparency: Just Damned Odd

I am researching "Part Three" of my current series out of the legal files. Part of the story is, of course, how thoroughly the North Carolina Medical Board squelched my complaint against the physician I got fired for rescuing/reporting to medical peer review in January 1998.

That would be Mick Irwin . . . employed by Asheboro Family Physicians - then owned by LeBauer Healthcare, owned by Cone Hospital.

I for sure don't owe Mick anything.

A complaint was filed with the Medical Board when my "notice" at RMA was up. I waited as I did not want to be fired "for cause" (that's a big part of "Part 3"). Plays hell with the CV.

The Medical Board complaint was dismissed with a behind-the-scenes slap on the hand for Dr. Irwin (translation: no public file) several months after it was filed. And, as soon as it was dismissed, I was SOL and on my own. The Board, while tweaking Irwin for his bad behavior, did not lift a finger to help me with my "problems".

Never mind that my problems existed because I put a patient first and exercised my duty to report (expecting to be protected when I did it).

I did not realize it, but the cover-up was more or less complete/state-sanctioned. It was just a matter of me being screwed over by the lawyers.

I e-mailed the Information Office at the Medical Board this morning and asked for a list of the members of the N.C. Medical Board during the years 1998-2000. I asked that their bios be included.

A short while later (the Board's response time is much better than it used to be), I got an e-mail with the lists I requested . . . but with the following disclaimer: "I am sorry but we do not keep their affiliation information."

In 1998, a Greensboro-area physician served on the N.C. Medical Board (indeed, I was warned before I filed the complaint that I could be spitting in the wind because of this physician and his associations).

As a medical "nobody", it is not very hard to imagine that phone calls were made.

I thought it very odd that, given the fact we physicians have to supply the Board with all kinds of background information in order to get and renew our licenses, that "affliation information" for MEMBERS of the NC Medical Board was not available.

So I fired off another e-mail:

. . . just to be clear, the N.C. Medical Board does not archive the biographies of its past members???

Here is the response:

Dr. Johnson,

You are correct. We do not keep biographies of our past board members.

Maureen Bedell
Executive Assistant/Verification Coordinator

And I am sorry people. For a state regulatory agency that has been preaching transparency and accountability until our ears bleed, this is just damned odd.

We're all accountable except them?

Par for my course, anyway.

Late Evening Update: More research. Interesting website/opinion. Can't say I disagree.

North Carolina ranks as one of the more difficult State Medical Boards. The North Carolina Board Members can be quite arbitrary in their decisions . . . As with many Southern Medical Boards, the decision process over whether to issue a license or not many times can be based on the personality of the individual board members and not on the facts of the Physician's credentials.

Let's review the facts in my case: Doctor A screws up. Barely gets slapped on hand by the NC Medical Board. Ultimately, Doctor A becomes Chief of Staff at Randolph Hospital.

Doctor B (told less than 48 hours previously to "shut up or else"), answering the pleas of the nursing staff, rescues Doctor A (who screwed up). By all accounts Doctor B saves the patient's life. Doctor B reports incident to hospital peer review. Two weeks later, Doctor B is fired by Randolph Hospital. The NC Medical Board does not move a muscle to help her.

I'm not even sure that's "arbitrary".