Gibbons sides with medical board over leaked memo

By Cy Ryan

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009 | 12:08 p.m.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons has joined the hierarchy of the state Board of Medical Examiners in seeking the resignation of board member Jean Stoess for giving an internal memo to the Las Vegas Sun.

Stoess of Reno initially said she was going to resign when asked to by Board Chairman Dr. Charles Held and Louis Ling, the executive secretary of the board, for allegedly breaking board rules.

Later she said she had second thoughts and wanted to wait until she heard from the governor.

She did. “Stacy Woodbury of the governor’s office just said the governor wants me to resign because leaking confidential information cannot be condoned,” Stoess said.

Gibbons issued a statement later explaining that medical board members have access to confidential patient medical information. “Any person appointed to the medical board by the governor must respect and adhere to the board’s policies regarding confidentiality and communications outside the agency.”

The board’s policy is that only Ling speaks to reporters.

The leaked memo, sent by Ling to board members, reviewed the ruling of District Judge Kathleen Delaney that voided the emergency regulation of the board allowing medical assistants to give flu shots. The judge held that the board violated the open meeting. Ling also wrote that the governor’s office is “of the opinion that we should just abandon the medical assistant regulatory process altogether.”

The memo, which was given to the Sun, showed no notation indicating it was confidential.

Two days after the memo was written, Gibbons asked the medical board to petition Judge Delaney to reconsider her decision to permit the regulation to go forward.

Ling also informed the board that “Judge Delaney also said the regulation itself was defective because it exceeded our statutory authority.”

A compromise has now been reached allowing medical assistants to give the flu shots if they are under the direct supervision of a licensed physician, removing a roadblock for Nevadans to get the inoculations.

Stoess, representing the general public on the board, had three years left on her term.