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    Eric Andrist
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    The Medical Board of California fails to adequately discipline doctors. It receives around 11,000 complaints per year but only disciplines about 4%. Investigations take an average of 2.5-3 years, allowing dangerous doctors to continue practicing. This lack of timely action has led to many preventable deaths and injuries. The Board is slow to act due to conflicts of interest in their funding structure and laws that reduce transparency and accountability. The Patient Safety League works to support victims, warn the public, and push for reforms, but struggles with limited resources.

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    Medical Board of California exposed.

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    The Medical Board of California fails to adequately discipline doctors. It receives around 11,000 complaints per year but only disciplines about 4%. Investigations take an average of 2.5-3 years, allowing dangerous doctors to continue practicing. This lack of timely action has led to many preventable deaths and injuries. The Board is slow to act due to conflicts of interest in their funding structure and laws that reduce transparency and accountability. The Patient Safety League works to support victims, warn the public, and push for reforms, but struggles with limited resources.

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    66 views6 pages

    CityWatch LA Article-Short

    Uploaded by

    Eric Andrist
    The Medical Board of California fails to adequately discipline doctors. It receives around 11,000 complaints per year but only disciplines about 4%. Investigations take an average of 2.5-3 years, allowing dangerous doctors to continue practicing. This lack of timely action has led to many preventable deaths and injuries. The Board is slow to act due to conflicts of interest in their funding structure and laws that reduce transparency and accountability. The Patient Safety League works to support victims, warn the public, and push for reforms, but struggles with limited resources.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    THE MEDICAL FARCE OF CALIFORNIA

    By Eric Andrist & Marian Hollingsworth


    Co-Executive Directors of ​The Patient Safety League

    It is estimated​ that over 40,000 patients die in California each and every year, from
    preventable​ medical errors, making it the third leading cause of death behind cancer and
    heart disease.

    Fact: The Medical Board of California takes in nearly 11,000 complaints against doctors
    every year, but only about 4%* of them end up with any discipline.

    [*From the ​2017-2018 Annual Report of the Medical Board of California​.


    If you add up the “Administrative Outcomes” in the far right column, it comes to
    406, which is about 3.7% of the 10,888 complaints
    they took in, in the top graphic]

    So, what about the other 96%? The Board is protected by laws that allow them to hide
    their actions from the public, so it’s virtually impossible to find out. The Board will publish
    disciplines against doctors -- but not the complaints they are based on, even though other
    agencies do.

    IF THE MEDICAL BOARD MOVED ANY SLOWER, THEY’D GO IN REVERSE.

    Even more frustrating is that the Medical Board takes on average, 2½ to 3 years (and
    sometimes up to 6) to complete an investigation of a doctor and levy a discipline.

    By not acting quickly enough (or at all), the Board puts consumers in danger. According to
    reports, the ​Medical Board knew about sexual assault complaints​ against ​Dr. Michael
    Popkin​ as far back as 2001. An accusation was filed against him in November of 2003,
    but contained no charges of sexual misconduct. It became clear that he continued to
    sexually assault patients when ​he was arrested​ in 2016. The court issued a court order
    preventing him from treating female patients in October 2017 and the Board finally
    revoked his license in April of 2018, some SEVENTEEN YEARS after first receiving
    sexual assault complaints about him. Because of the Board’s inaction, more people were
    harmed.

    [Dr. Michael Popkin’s mugshot. Photo source: LAPD.]

    Alex Smick​ of Downey was overdosed to death after he checked himself into a hospital
    after taking too many pain meds for sports injury. ​Dr. Daniel Headrick​ prescribed him a
    lethal cocktail of medications and then instructed the staff to NOT check on him while he
    was sleeping. The next morning he was found face down in his bed in a pile of vomit,
    dead. It had been so long since anyone had checked on him that he was already in rigor
    mortis. Alex died in February of 2012. His family filed a Medical Board complaint against
    Dr. Headrick in November of 2013. The Board didn’t even interview Headrick for almost
    two years. It took another year for the Board to file an accusation against him. Finally,
    right before Christmas 2017, 5½ years after Alex’s death, the family received the Medical
    Board’s ​decision​. Dr. Headrick was given a “Public Reprimand,” a disciplinary action that
    is reserved for minor violations, certainly not a death. In total, it took 4 years and 16 days
    (or 1477 days) for the Board to process the complaint, and Headrick was allowed to
    practice the whole time. He later went on ​a television show​, bragging about his lenient
    discipline from the Board and putting the blame on everyone but himself.

    [Alex Smick, left, Dr. Daniel Headrick, right.


    Photo sources: Tammy Smick and “​Inside OC with Rick Reiff​”]

    ​Watch Alex’s parents​ as they hold the Medical Board accountable at one of their
    quarterly meetings.

    96% DISCIPLINARY FAIL RATE

    Ponder this. The Medical Board derives the bulk of its working capital from the license
    fees of the very doctors they oversee. How is that not an automatic conflict of interest? If
    they revoke too many licenses, they lose those license fees. The Board complains about
    not having enough money to pay staff and investigators (even with a budget over $60
    million) and that’s with closing 96% of the consumer complaints. If even 50% of the
    closed complaints were legitimate, how could they possibly investigate them all, when
    they don’t even have enough money to investigate the 4% they do get to?

    In January 1993, the L.A. Times ​published an article​ detailing how a few Medical Board
    whistleblowers claimed their superiors had been literally throwing consumer complaints in
    the trash.

    “Among the investigation's findings was the disclosure that hundreds of


    Medical Board cases had been improperly dismissed--and in many
    instances destroyed--in an apparent attempt to reduce a backlog that had
    prompted criticism from the Legislature. [Whistleblowers] said a
    three-person management team marched into several key offices in 1990
    and began going through files. They said certain files were tagged,
    indicating that they should be closed and in some cases destroyed. ‘You
    would see a stack of files two feet high on a supervisor's desk one day
    and by the next hardly any would be left,’ recalled one investigator.” [Los
    Angeles Times, January 22, 1993]

    It’s hard to not think this is still happening today.

    Example...​Annette Ramirez​ was harmed by a doctor who sliced her bowel after a routine
    surgery. For more than 36 hours nurses failed to report her abnormal vital signs and her
    doctor failed to adequately follow up to check her condition after surgery. An infection
    rapidly spread through her system causing her to go into septic shock. Gangrene spread,
    which led to the amputation of her arms and legs.

    Annette filed a complaint with the Medical Board only to have it shut down, claiming no
    lapses in the standard of care. Does the standard of care really allow for the amputation
    of a patients’ limbs after a doctor harms them??

    [Annette Ramirez. Photo source: ​CAOC​]

    And lest you think Annette’s story is an exception, here are links to other stories of victims
    who had their complaints closed without a proper investigation: ​Robert Downey​, ​Mario
    Guzman​, ​Daniela Zelig​, ​Morgan Westhoff​, ​Cali Andrist​, ​Eric Andrist​.

    OUR RESEARCH IN THE NEWS

    This past November, we helped ​10News in San Diego with a story​ on more than 150
    doctors who were disciplined for sexual abuse and other serious violations. In December
    NBC-LA chronicled a story​ we found of Sarah Al-Habib and how she had been sexually
    assaulted by ​her doctor​. In February, our data led NBC to the story of three L.A.-area
    doctors, all of whom are on the ​Sex Offender Registry​, but are still practicing medicine,
    and how the Medical Board makes no effort whatsoever to warn patients about them.
    Here’s 32 California doctors​ who appear on the Sex Offender Registry.
    SOME OF OUR LAWS AREN’T PROTECTING US

    To show how bad the laws are that govern the Medical Board, take a look at the case of
    Dr. Ryszard Chetkowski​, who ran a fertility clinic. Chetkowski was accused by at least six
    women of sexual misconduct. Even after the Medical Board detailed the multiple horrific
    sexual assaults, they still only gave him a Public Reprimand. By law, Public Reprimand’s
    disappear from the Board’s website after 10 years, unlike other documents which remain
    visible indefinitely. Chetkowski’s page on ​their website​ is clear; there’s not one mention of
    the sexual assaults.

    Is there no act heinous enough that it can’t be bargained away?

    [Dr. Ryszard Chetkowski. Photo source: ​Sutterhealth.org​]

    ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY

    Recently, the Medical Board and the Attorney General’s Office had to admit that one of
    their own medical “experts” (​Dr. Aaron Stone​) behaved in such a way that the ​accusation
    against Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Hughes​, had to be dismissed. Hughes’
    attorney basically called the Medical Board’s expert a liar and corrupt. So, while the
    accusation very well could have had legitimate concerns in it, the Board was forced to
    dismiss the action and now, ​Hughes’ profile on their website​ provides no information
    whatsoever to the public in regard to anything a patient might need to be concerned
    about. You can watch key portions of the hearing exposing the “corrupt expert” ​HERE​.
    Hughes has at least two pending court cases in the Los Angeles Superior Court, but you
    won’t find that information on the Medical Board’s website, either.

    We started our little nonprofit, ​The Patient Safety League​, so that we can officially try to
    help victims of medical errors, warn the public about doctors with all degrees of
    disciplinary actions, and monitor state agencies like the Medical Board of California and
    the Department of Public Health, both of which are not properly protecting us. We started
    our ​website​ due to the lack of information on the Medical Board’s website. Right now
    we’re existing hand to mouth, and it often costs us a lot of money from our own pockets to
    do our job. ​Tax-deductible donations​ can be made to the Patient Safety League on their
    website​.

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