Sun editorial:

Stop the whining

Despite Medical Board president’s claim, Nevadans not adequately protected

Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.

It is no secret that the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners has often done a poor job of protecting the public from bad doctors and shoddy medical practices. The only people who do not seem to realize that are members of the board.

The latest example of this was a news release issued Tuesday by Dr. Charles Held, the board’s president, in response to an Oct. 25 story in the Las Vegas Sun that provided recent examples of the board’s substandard performance.

Declaring “Enough is enough,” Held whined that there has been too much misinformation about the board and that it “pursues the goal of protecting the citizens of Nevada.”

In reality the board has had a long history of turning its back on Nevadans. During the state’s contentious medical malpractice debate this decade, critics were on target when they charged that the board failed to make disciplinary actions and settlement agreements with law-breaking doctors readily available to the public. The board also was chastised for rarely holding meetings in Southern Nevada, where a majority of the state’s population resides.

The Reno Gazette-Journal in 2004 published an exposé revealing that Nevada had one of the nation’s worst records of disciplining doctors while allowing physicians facing serious allegations to avoid punishment.

The Nevada Legislature has responded to criticism by passing laws making the board more responsive to the public, including fuller disclosure of actions taken against doctors. But serious problems persist. Last year the board’s incompetence was on full display when it reacted to the hepatitis C outbreak in Southern Nevada with the speed of a glacier.

Another puzzling board performance involved Dr. Kevin Buckwalter, the subject of stories in the Sun for prescribing narcotics in a way that was linked to patient deaths. The Drug Enforcement Administration followed up those reports by citing Buckwalter in nine patient deaths, causing the agency to revoke his license to prescribe narcotics. The state board did the same but inexplicably allowed the doctor to keep his medical license.

It may be that the only way to correct these debacles is to have legislators dismantle the board and let a state agency discipline doctors. What is obvious is that the way Nevada regulates its doctors is broken.

Discussion: 5 comments so far…

By NLV-Indep13

11/5/09 at 10:02 a.m.

Suggest removal

It would help if this article listed how many people were on the board, if the State was paying them, and what the Board's overall budget was in 2009. Fixing the board -- making it more directly accountable to the public and it's deliberations more transparent -- is probably preferable to starting over.
By AngryReader

11/5/09 at 10:44 a.m.

Suggest removal

Nevada is a 'buyer beware' state as far as medical care goes. It is riskier than playing horn bets at craps table.

Be smart and stay safe, go to Scottsdale or California or St. George for your medical care needs.

One has to question why any physician would practice in Las Vegas unless they have gotten run out of another jurisdiction, have a gambling habit, or frequent the Pahrump cat houses.
By Northsider

11/5/09 at 12:23 p.m.

Suggest removal

Strong evidence was brought before the board in 2005 they failed to suspend his license then .Resulting in the deaths of over 4 people that I know about . One of these deaths was my 21 year old niece. She started seeing him 18 months before she died. If the medical board would have taken away his license then she would be alive .I can't speak for others but how did the Medical Board help the people of Nevada? Only suspending his ability to write prescriptions for narcotics. This man SOLD his practice the day after his suspension of writing narcotic scripts. How could he possibly leave all his patients behind he could still treat people but decided not to help the sick.Instead he still holds a medical license why not go the whole nine yards? I called the Medical Board 2 days ago and left a message concerning the meeting this weekend, but they failed to return my call. I guess they are to busy giving favors to doctors who destroy families like mine .My niece is just as important as this mans license so we need to work together in his punishment .
By Birdiedreamin

11/5/09 at 2:39 p.m.

Suggest removal

has desai's license to practice medicine been revoked???
did the board recently agree to let carrera practice medicine again???
what actions were taken with regard to carrol???
has buckwalter's license to practice medicine been revoked???
does the board understand the basic legal concept that a license, by definition, can be revoked???
is the medical board afraid to revoke a doctor's license to practice medicine???
is the medical board protecting its' own???
what the hell is going on???
were board members with ties to desai allowed to remain on the board, yet stoess, whose actions would have actually helped the public understand the workings of the board, asked to resign???
does the board understand that they need to act without even the appearance of impropriety???
hmmm???
why was the emergency regulation regarding medical assistants passed without proper public comment???
why was the emergency regulation regarding medical assistants an emergency all of a sudden anyway???
was it pure coincidence that one of the by products of the emergency regulation regarding medical assistants would have been to drive business away from spas and back to doctors???
what the hell was going on???
why aren't the doctors themselves screaming at the medical board at the top of their lungs???
is the medical board drunk on its own arrogance???
and on and on and on"
too many questions"
too many excuses"
too many tortured rationalizations"
not enough satisfactory answers"
the citizens of the great state of nevada are not safe"
the legislature needs to blow the medical board up and start over from scratch"
the citizens of the great state of nevada need to contact their legislators and remind them"
legislators do, in fact, have the power to blow the medical board up and start over from scratch"
legislators must, in fact, blow the medical board up and start over from scratch"
call your assembly person and senator today"
enough is enough!!!

http://mapserve.leg.state.nv.us/website/...
By POWERPLAY

11/5/09 at 7:05 p.m.

Suggest removal

Hey AngryReader: Im going to agree with you on this one' Nevada has always sided with business over the consumer.

« Previous Ten Next Ten »

Live chat: Tuesday, noon PST; Chat with Krista Creelman; Problem Gambling Center executive director Krista Creelman will answer questions about gambling addiction from Las Vegas Sun readers from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. ... Submit question