Until
2007, she was a happy, upbeat, ER doc with everything going for her. The NCMB
went after her because she had (in 2005) briefly worked two evenings a week in
a little mom-and-pop weight loss clinic. It was a reasonable diet and exercise
type, no ÒFen-PhenÓ or HCG. The husband and wife lay owners paid her
(and later a PA she supervised) so it could be "medically
supervised." The NCMB said the clinic owners were "practicing medicine
without a license" and that she was guilty of "aiding and abetting
the corporate practice of medicine" because she was "an
employee" of lay-persons. She didn't know back
then that she was really an independent contractor, didn't understand the
difference when their investigator asked her if she was an employee.
The
NCMB then requested "charts" and sent them to an "expert
reviewer" who believed she was reviewing charts from a family practice,
and question why she was not checking thyroid levels on people taking thyroid
meds. She was never given a chance to explain that she was not their primary
care doctor, it would have been inappropriate for her,
as a consultant, to try to manage their meds. Her role was only to note that
they were clinically euthyroid, or if not, to refer them back to their regular
doctor. The NCMB also accused her of allowing lay people to "call in
prescriptions without my consent." Now first of all, if this happened, and
it was "without consent" how could she have allowed something that
she was purposely kept unaware of? Secondly, there was not one shred of
evidence to support that anything like this ever happened.
There
were no patient complaints, She'd never had a lawsuit, there
were no bad outcomes. The NCMB then went through every detail of her personal
life with a fine tooth comb, and really came up with
nothing more, but they did force her to sign a consent order: they would take
her license if she didn't sign it. They published a public letter of reprimand
in their infamous newsletter, which resulted in a data bank report. She wasn't fired from my ER job, but was
simply given no more shifts, and has not worked in an ER since.
This
after racking up $14,000 in attorney fees from a former board attorney himself
who had been referred to me by the boards present attorney, she paid while the two
of them played golf, and "her lawyer" told her there was nothing she
could do but sign.
The
emotional toll was the worst. Her good name had been tarnished. She had always
done well in school, graduated from top schools in Boston, had always held her
head high, proud of her achievements. She was unable to discuss this with
peers, who treated her like a leper who must have done *something* to deserve
this. Even her family assumed the worst. The isolation really hurt.
Her military
husband was moved to Washington State last June. She was glad to leave NC, and
finally have a license. She is seeing private patients, who pay cash, out of a
home office at present. Is still
trying to recover from this.