Posted on 04/15/2002 7:24:23 AM PDT by ijcr
WASHINGTON - More than 100 federal government doctors have been convicted of crimes or disciplined by state medical boards, including one physician now treating veterans who was convicted of helping a terrorist group, an Associated Press review of medical licenses has found.
Federal agencies are required to check the backgrounds of doctors they employ but are not prohibited from hiring those with criminal records, revoked licenses or medical punishments.
All a doctor needs is a medical license valid in one state to get a government job.
Dr. Suzy Melkonian, who is paid $48 an hour as a blood cancer specialist at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Los Angeles, was convicted 21 years ago in Switzerland of extorting money for a group that staged terrorist bombings and assassinations.
Melkonian was reprimanded five years ago by California for failing to disclose her Swiss conviction when applying for a medical license.
Despite Melkonian's conviction, VA managers believed her training and patient care were good and "she'd be a qualified member of our staff," said Dr. Dean Norman, chief of staff for the Los Angeles VA hospital.
An AP review of medical board disciplinary records identified at least 118 federal doctors who have worked for the government in the past two years who were convicted of crimes or punished by state authorities for offenses ranging from sex and drug abuse to incompetence.
Three of those doctors have been fired in recent months, including one whose conviction for attempted child molestation should have legally barred him from getting his job, and two who had relapses of conduct that prompted earlier punishments.
In all, 0.5 percent of the more than 20,800 doctors employed by the government have been convicted of crimes or punished, the records showed. Nationally, the rate is 2.6 percent.
But advocates say the government's choice of doctors should be better than the public at large, particularly because federal physicians serve the vulnerable, the underprivileged and those who fought to keep the country safe.
"How many times do we have to get screwed over? Nobody seems to care all that much," said Sherri Siegle, a Choctaw nurse who worked for the Indian Health Service. Siegle said she checked the backgrounds of doctors at her Oklahoma hospital after seeing them make mistakes, and found several who had been previously punished.
Fourteen punished doctors currently work for IHS.
Punished federal physicians have treated veterans, soldiers, American Indians, astronauts and federal prisoners. They also have researched drug safety, investigated new addiction treatments and acted as agency medical advisers.
They include:
_At least five reprimanded for neglecting patients who died.
_11 convicted criminals, including doctors who ordered child pornography, defrauded Medicaid and stole drugs from the VA.
_18 punished for sexual misconduct, including a doctor disciplined for having sex with five patients.
_Thirty-seven punished for drug violations, including three whose drug use forced them to leave surgeries and three federal prison doctors who now treat prisoners for drug abuse and other ailments.
The majority - 75 - work for the VA, the largest federal health care agency. Some veterans' groups want VA Secretary Anthony Principi to investigate.
"If this is true - and these are some serious allegations - I assume the secretary will do something about it," said Dick Flanagan, a spokesman for the group AMVETS.
Federal officials acknowledge screening processes are not always thorough.
Dr. Thomas Craig, the VA's chief medical officer, said overworked hospital officials sometimes can miss problems or fail to check a doctor's background thoroughly. The VA has a new computer system to assist background checks.
Melkonian and other punished doctors said they told supervisors about their pasts.
Melkonian was convicted in 1981 of extorting about $6,000 from a Swiss businessman to help the now-defunct Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, according to California medical board records and news reports. ASALA, identified by the U.S. government as a terrorist group, claimed credit for scores of bombings and assassinations, mostly of Turkish targets.
Melkonian was arrested in 1980 after an explosion in her Geneva hotel room led police to discover a partly assembled bomb. Afterward, ASALA and a splinter group began a bombing campaign aimed at freeing her and an ASALA leader.
Melkonian denied being a member of the terrorist group. The Swiss court convicted her of extortion, gave her an 18-month suspended sentence and expelled her.
"These events have nothing whatsoever to do with my practice of medicine," Melkonian, 46, said in a written statement. She attended medical school in Chicago after leaving Switzerland.
The California Medical Board reprimanded Melkonian in 1997 for failing to disclose her conviction on her 1996 license application.
Her lawyer, Theodora Poloynis-Engen, said Melkonian did not know she had been convicted because Swiss authorities never told her and the court proceedings were conducted in French, which Melkonian does not understand.
Other punished federal doctors include:
_Dr. Brian K. Bevacqua, head of anesthesiology at the VA hospital in Madison, Wis. In 1987, Bevacqua pleaded guilty to ordering child pornography and was sentenced to two years' probation and a $1,500 fine, according to Pennsylvania and Ohio medical board and court records. He declined comment.
_Dr. Robert H. Gerner, whose California license was suspended for 60 days in 1994 for having sex with a patient during psychotherapy sessions. Gerner now makes more than $52 per hour at the VA hospital in Los Angeles.
Norman, the hospital's chief of staff, said hospital officials knew about Gerner's punishment and required him to be supervised by another doctor.
_Dr. Stephen John Davis, who earned $111,245 at a Nevada federal prison last year. Michigan and Georgia suspended his medical licenses for six months in 1993 on charges he neglected one of his nursing home patients who died. Davis said prison officials knew about the case when they hired him.
"It happened at the time when nursing homes were under fire, so I was the example," Davis said. "Well, that's life."
A federal job can be attractive to punished doctors because they would not need malpractice insurance. Injured patients must sue the government, not the doctor, for malpractice at federal facilities.
"A lot of these guys have been sued and are fed up with medicine, so they come into the prison or the federal government health care system," explained Dr. Fred McRae Roberson, who works at a Minnesota federal prison after being penalized by Minnesota, Texas and Louisiana.
A few federal doctors suffered relapses of past conduct. Dr. Ralph Benton Perkerson Jr., who lost medical licenses six times for drug use, was fired last year from the VA hospital in Lake City, Fla. after using cocaine anew.
"I never used drugs when I was working on patients, and I never thought I was impaired when treating patients," Perkerson said.
All of this has been known for decades, especially the VA. They can only hire misfits that are hiding out from the mainstream of the medical profession. The sad stories of patient care are legion. These people perform third rate care at the very best.
It looks like they are doing far better than non-government. My experience with the VA has been excellent.
People have to remember, 50% of all doctors graduated in the lower half of their class.
A little story I wrote:
Got into the VA hospital for a routine exam, but as the day turned out, it was anything but routine.
Decided that the first order of business was a cup of coffee and a donut. Went down to this little alcove where they give away coffee for donations. There was this little old lady, about 80, pouring coffee into the pot. A guy in a wheel chair asked for one of her donuts. She laid into him, calling him a poor imitation of a man, telling him to wait this turn, etc. He said “excuuuuuuse MEEEE”, with sarcasm. Then she let into him, me, 3 other guys, and another lady. She said “we never get any tips for all the coffee we make, the napkins we give away, the cups, or anything”. Unfortunately, I started laughing, and she noticed it. Then it was my turn. She turned her wrath on me. I listened until she ran down (about a min or two). When she paused to take a breath, I quietly asked her what she was like when she had a bad day? That brought down the onlookers, everybody just roared. Smoke started coming out of her ears. She said that she wasn’t going to volunteer any more Mondays. And she tottered off down the hall.
My appointment came. The nurse called me into the room, gave me one of those paper dresses they call a gown, and told me to strip to my skivvies. I did. Got on the examination table, laid down and waited. Guess what, a lady doctor walks in, introduces her self as Dr. Iran Indera, from the Middle East. I’m not going to say anything, but thoughts did go thru my mind.
Dr. Iran starts typing on the computer, with her back to me. I noticed that the exam table had stirrups on the end, so I stuck my heels into them. She turned around, saw what I had done, and said “I don’t think that is necessary”. It went down hill from there.
She listened to my heart, heard a murmur (I have had it all my life) and asked me what the source of the murmur was? I was at a loss for words, couldn’t remember the correct word, so I said “ Genital?”. She said, in her accent “you mean congenital?”. After I quit giggling, I said “yes”.
As she was pulling on the rubber gloves and coating them with KY jelly, she said “ jump off the table, and pull down your underwear”. Not wanting to get ahead of her, I waited for the dreaded words “bend over”. She said them, and I did. She said “spread your cheeks”, soooo, I reached up and pulled the cheeks on my face apart. Bad mistake, this lady didn’t have a sense of humor at all. After I started obeying her commands, I found out why she used the KY jelly all over the glove. It is a good thing she wasn’t wearing a watch.
She said, “pull up your underwear”. I did, she then said “get up on the table“, I started to, when she said “ wait I want to see....”. She only got that far, when I pulled down the underwear, knowing she was going to check out other parts. She finished her sentence “..... your feet and legs”. Then she giggled. There is one thing a man doesn’t want to have happen. Stand in front of your female Doctor, naked, and have her giggle.
This Doctor had no tact. Her next question to me was if I wanted a prescription for Viagra? I couldn’t have been more embarrassed, so I said “sure, bring it on”. She asked me how many I needed in a month, I said 15. She looked at me sternly and said “ now, realistically, how many do you need in a year?” I said “realistically, give me 3 for the year, I can throw away the 2 left over”.
Exam was over, so I went down the hall to the coffee pot. The volunteer wasn’t there, so I got a cup of coffee, went to the phone, to set up my next appointment. Damn, the volunteer was there, by the phones. She told me in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t allowed in that part of the hospital with coffee or food. I innocently asked her why she had coffee on her cart then. She told me that it wasn’t any of my business, but she was delivering coffee to the nurses. I asked her for a refill, but she refused.
Went out to the courtyard for a cigarette. Doc Iran was there, being served coffee by the volunteer. Dr. Iran asked me why I didn’t tell her I smoked. I said “after 20 years in the Army, I don’t volunteer anything; besides, I like to smoke.” She said “when you are sucking oxygen off a little roll around cart; I’ll have a bumper sticker printed up that says ”I LIKE TO SMOKE””. She put me on a no smoking program, right then and there.
For example, this morning I saw a patient who was found on routine blood tests done last September to have an elevated PSA of 8.5. He did not have a biopsy until January of this year because of the usual delays in scheduling. It is now mid April before I am seeing the patient for treatment. In the interim, his PSA has risen to 12.7 dropping his statistical chance of 5 year PSA disease free survival with radiation from 85% to 65%, all other parameters equal. I have seen head and neck cancers go from curable to incurable after a 6 week delay in scheduling appropriate tests and treatment. In private practice, this does not happen often. Most patients with abnormal PSA's have biopsies, staging workups and treatment initiated within 2-3 weeks. Even when I chief of my service at Walter Reed Army Medical Center 25 years ago, things were not as bad as the VA. We have some new staff physicians at are local VA that have tried to change and improve the system, but they are now discouraged with the roadblocks and turf battles they have had to fight. It is truly sad.
Then do away with the VAs.
Time and time again this scenario has been calculated, and, anyway you look at it, the patients get BETTER CARE, CHEAPER CARE, FASTER CARE, and MUCH MORE FREEDOM.
The Government, in turn, would save A BOATLOAD on medical care if it nuked the VAs and gave Veterans Cadillac health care vouchers.
But it won't never happen. Why?
Because the VA hospitals are Federal pork dispensing centers for the largely RAT or crybaby minority doctors, nurses, technicians, virtually anyone who wants to be there without withstanding the QA and scrutiny of the real world.
It is for THEM that the VA is designed.
NOT for the VETERANS.
---max
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