Sex in the office

Joseph McNamara, a doctor from Harrisonburg, admitted to the board that he engaged in sexual contact with a patient during that patient’s visit to his office. A news article in the local paper says that court documents list the patient alleging McNamara made her perform oral sex. The article also says that McNamara will be in court Sept. 4 for a case regarding sexual abuse.

The order, from June, says the McNamara has sought treatment related to his conduct. The notice filed prior to the order says that McNamara’s conduct was “lewd and offensive.”

McNamara voluntarily gave his license to the board, which was indefinitely suspended. McNamara cannot petition the board for reinstatement for one year.

Looks like a chiropractor from Onancock likes the same things McNamara does.

Robert Simpson was placed on indefinite probation in July for engaging in sexual contact with a patient during office visits. The sexual contact continued from June ‘06 to roughly Oct. ‘06, the consent order says. Simpson also talked about one patient to another.

But get this, Simpson told that board that after he terminated his relationship with his patient, he instituted measures of professionalism in his office, including chaperone’s for all female patients and keeping patients clothed at all times. That must be some complete exam on the part of Simpson.

Simpson was also ordered to take 15 hours of continuing education classes in ethics/boundaries. Simpson must have a chaperon present whenever he sees a female patient.

Come on. If I was a female patient at his office and both myself and the doctor had to be escorted, I think I’d be just a little nervous.

Baby Delivery

Sidath Jayanetti, a doctor from Chesapeake, volunteered his license to the board after a series of troubles with baby delivery.

In March ‘04, one of Jayanetti’s patients underwent a obstetric observation after she had a decrease in fetal movement. Jayanetti didn’t respond to a strip reading that was taken during this period. A month later the patient’s baby died. The mother was more than 34 weeks pregnant.

In June ‘05, Jayanetti didn’t respond to his 17-year-old patient’s symptoms of preeclampsia. Jayanetti also lacerated the newborn’s toe during delivery and failed to report the incident. The order does not tell us how either of the two instances impacted the mother and baby.

One month later, after delivering another baby, Jayanetti left his patient without delivering the placenta. The patient required care after an increase in vaginal bleeding and a drop in blood pressure.

Jayanetti’s hospital privlages were suspended after a review of the two incidents in 2005. He stopped seeing new patients this January and he gave his license up in mid August.

I’m perplexed how it took three years to take action against Jayanetti. I know that the review process is a long one, but is it possible that a mother would withhold a complaint for a few years? Is there a statue of limitations on the period of time a patient can complain about their provider?

James Ross busted

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Western District office, James Stanley Ross, 53, of Clarksville, “pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Danville to illegally distributing controlled substances on twenty-three separate occasions.”

Dr. Ross distributed OxyContin once, another form of oxycodone once, codeine twice and hydrocodone nineteen times. The drugs are for pain relief.

“As part of the plea agreement, Ross agreed to never practice medicine again and never again seek a license from the FDA to prescribe medication. The maximum penalty for the three charges combined is 45 years in prison and a fine of $2,250,000.”

Ross was indicted in February and had his license officially revoked last month.

Ross was caught by undercover police in an exchange for what he thought was cocaine at a K-Mart parking lot in Danville.

What medicine for schizophrenia can do to you

I wonder how often this happens…

Glendale Pharmacy in Newport News, VA gave the wrong medication to a patient. Apparently, the patient was supposed to receive Macrobid (a drug for urinary tract infections) and instead received Clozaril – a medicine for schizophrenia!

Yowsers, that has got to be a shock to the system.

The patient who got the Clozaril experienced a loss of consciousness,  slurred speech and lethargy and had to take a trip to the ER.

The pharmacy was fined $500, which leads me to believe this might happen more often than not.

The intern knows!

They say you better not cross the line, especially as an intern. Karen Powers, an intern/resident at a Richmond hospital, treated a fellow intern for a large abscess, “performing an incision and drainage, packing and dressing the wound, and prescribing Percocet for pain…”

I guess the interns in the real world aren’t given the same power as the ones on Grey’s Anatomy, who use household drills to put holes in a human skull with no “real” doctor around. Should Powers have stuck to pouring coffee?

Powers was only reprimanded by the board. The incident occurred in 2005.

Drinking on and off the job

Robert C. Keeley practices medicine in Roanoke. In September 2005 while on call for his practice at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Keeley was in a car accident, subsequently charged and convicted of DUI. He also told the board that he provided medical directives to nurses on other occasions he drank alcohol and that he attended a substance abuse program in late 2005.

Keeley was REPRIMANDED by the board in April, almost two years later, and required to enter a program with the Health Practitioners’ Intervention Program (HPIP)

Keeley is not alone:

Maybe she was having a bad day? Maybe she was thirsty?

Either way, Trisha Howell, a nurse at Town and Country Assisted Living in Lebanon, VA, was found with a 40 ounce beer between her legs in a residents room. At the time, Howell was responsible for 18 residents, 15 of which were mental health residents. She was fired and charged with neglect.

Howell was also charged with, in separate incidents, driving while intoxicated and child endangerment in 2006, forgery (1991) and concealment (2000). It looks like the most recent offenses in 2006 led to a year of supervised probation.

Howell’s license was suspended in May by the Virginia Board of Nursing.

And last, but not least, Neva Tutwiler had her license suspended until the board meets again in September to discuss allegations of coming to work drunk in Winchester.

Let’s turn to a brief from the The Huffington Post last year that points to a study about this topic:

“Workplace alcohol use and impairment directly affects an estimated 15 percent of the U.S. workforce, or 19.2 million workers, according to a recent study conducted at the University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) and reported in the current issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.

Information about workplace alcohol use and impairment during the previous 12 months was obtained by telephone interviews from 2,805 employed adults residing in the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. The sample of participants was designed to reflect the demographic composition of the adult civilian U.S. workforce from ages 18-65.”

Right knee? Or was it left: Wrong-site surgery

Okay, I’ve heard of doctors performing surgeries on the wrong limb. I’ve had friends who made sure to mark, with a sharpie, which ACL to repair when they went under.

But gosh, I’ve never heard of a doctor doing it twice. Kenneth Gray, a doctor from Radford, was reprimanded and fined $5,000 for performing surgery on the wrong knee of one patient and then again on the wrong hip of another patient. Talk about dyslexic.

The mistakes happened one year apart, in December of 2002 and then again in December of 2003.

After initial surgery on an incorrect knee, Gray said he made changes in his surgical procedure to stop wrong-site surgery. Then the 86-year-old woman came along and had to under go the same surgery on both hips – only one of them was fractured.

Here are some tips patients can use to prevent wrong-site surgery from The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCHAO), a not-for-profit organization that evaluates and accredits 15,000 health care programs throughout the U.S.

1. You and your surgeon should agree on exactly what will be done during the operation.
2. Ask to have the surgical site marked with a permanent marker and to be involved in marking the site. This means that the site cannot be easily overlooked or confused (for example, surgery on the right knee instead of the left knee).
3. Ask questions. You should speak up if you have concerns. It’s okay to ask questions and expect answers that you understand.
4. Think of yourself as an active participant in the safety and quality of your health care. Studies show that patients who are actively involved in making decisions about their care are more likely to have good outcomes.

And here is an article in The Washington Post from October 2006 on wrong-site surgery. The article notes that, in fact, surgery in the wrong area or even on the wrong person is much more common than we might think. And how about going in for circumcision but having your testicles removed? Yowsers.

 

The below chart is from JCAHO and shows an increase in wrong-site surgery over the past decade: