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Marielopez 08/26/2011 5:01:00 AM
Everything sound agreeable until you got to the domestic abuse part...There is no excuse for that behavior period.....
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Medical Malpractice 06/28/2011 1:22:00 PM
Medical Malpractice should improve each person because this can be harmless for the patients so the always be good and done good work in the future.
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05/25/2011 9:16:00 AM
Dexedrine addiction is no different from alcoholism or an addiction to any other substance. However, no one is prescribed alcohol or cocaine for medical reasons. Many individuals who abuse stimulant medication such as Dexedrine find that they become dependent on the drug. Their reason for use becomes a need; they feel they need the medication to get by in their day to day lives.
Dexedrine Addiction
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Bob Robson 04/23/2011 7:49:00 AM
As usual with reports like this the bias is obvious. If I asked the person who wrote this article why the full truth was not detailed here, the answer would be because it's not my job to add any information that might help to clear these men rather to give the basic information and let the public decide. Of course this is only my experienced opinion but the details given would lead readers to only one conclusion. The problem with this is that the conclusion that would be drawn in the case of Dr. Grade would be grossly incorrect. First, Dr. Grade's relapse was long after the patients death that was described. The patient in the story that died was an experienced nurse. That means she was an expert at the administration of medication. She knew what the dose she took would do. This patient came to Dr. Grade as a chronic pain patient. Most probably a medical train wreck. A botched surgery? Or series of botched surgeries etc etc...??? The point is that she came to him for pain relief most likely with a story that her present meds were no longer doing the job and her physician was out of town/retired/ dead??? What ever???? Since there is no central data bank for doctors to check the physicians only way of knowing what the patient has been prescribed is to take the word of the patient. In this case what choice would doctor Grade have but to believe this professional nurse. Dr. Grade having severe and chronic pain himself suffered a crushing fall from a hang glider years before leaving him with a permanently deformed hip causing his back to twist from walking with such a sever limp and a life long dependency on his cane. To say the least he understood the pain and depression a person can go through having lost the independence of physical freedom. That is probably what made him so sympathetic when someone would come to him for pain relief help. It would be foolish to believe that the doctor didn't take a detailed oral history. It would also be ridicules to believe that doctor Grade didn't advise the patient to discard all former pain meds before taking the medication he prescribed. Another fact conveniently omitted from the article was autopsy results. Even if these were not available to the writer he/she might consider asking around to at least get some sort of feel or clue as to the outcome. Was the patient found to have other drugs on board? I'd say, highly likely. Was the patient depressed. Another likely yes. Chronic pain patients usually are and must have mood elevating drugs and or extensive emotional therapy to over come the depression or live with it. I believe it is a strong possibility that this patient committed suicide.
Dr. Grade just happened to be the last physician to treat her and the person of choice to charge with malpractice and sue. Domestic abuse is a serious charge of course but a person with sever and chronic pain especially a physician who has access to the treatment for that pain can as much as anyone else desire not only pain relief but freedom from that pain. This leads to the depression which leads to over medicating which leads to becoming intoxicated which leads to unnatural behavior like domestic abuse which in turn leads to law inforcement reaction/arrest which leads to medical board action. Of course it's only my opinion. (and that's my disclaimer)
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Fellmeth Fraud 09/12/2010 7:22:00 PM
The Julie Fellmeth you quote has NO cases of patients harmed by any MAP or Diversion physician in California. She has hunted for such for 29 years and has failed to find one. She is a lier. Call her and ask her to send you a written list of all the dangerous physicians she claims exist. Make sure she sends you a list of names, dates and documented cases of harm. Post it here. The page will be blank. If she is so strident, name names. Julie d'angelo Fellmeth is an unrepentent lier. The most dangerous person to patients nationwide is consumer advocate, trial lawyer, lobbiest, hypocrite and fraud Julie Fellmeth. And ask her why she lives in a house that is now a California State Museum of Indian Artifacts. That's right, she has stolen Native American Artifacts that she and her husband keep in their personal museum. The museum is never open. Call her and ask about bad doctors and illegal Indian relics:
619 260 4806 (San Diego)
916 444 3875 (Sacramento)
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Raul 06/11/2010 8:39:00 PM
This report is biased and obviously anti-doctor and anti-mental illnes/substance abuse treatment. It pitches to people that the Arizona Medical Board isn't punitive enough or that it favors doctors. Actually the Arizona Medical Board serves itself. It is quite unfriendly to doctors who have problems. It treats all doctors who have complaints against them like criminals. It doesn't try to be salvaging of doctors who may have problesm and are too afraid to get help because there is a system in place that is draconian and completely self serving. In other words, these people are already evil enough you don't have to goad them into being more destructive. I hope there would be a board for writers of alarmaist shit like your wrote.
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nicknickMD 05/08/2010 10:52:00 PM
Good point below....but let's find the proof. Former addicts usually trade one addiction for another and maybe a random test would be in order for the two docs who run thr program. Could there be any better cover than working as a rehab doc to cover one's own issues? If Arizona is going to give an absolute exclusivity to these two doctors only to evaluate the entire state from Doctors to nurses to psychologists, then better monitoring and QI of their activity would surely be in order. No way the state simply gives them free reign to do as they please without any accountability. But then again....
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mjf 04/19/2010 9:13:00 PM
It has been said that Dr Sucher is a recovering addict by some friends who have been through his program. If this is true, who monitors him? Once an addict, always, as I have been there. Maybe it is just rumor, but nothing in his file or background says he is- is there a coverup?.But normally records are not expunged like that and will follow a doctor around, so what is the story on the one making the decisions? Did he get around the system back in the day and is able to hide his own background? Who monitors that addict - who with constant exposure to the drug life, would be a very high risk of relapse.
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suzanne 10/01/2008 4:51:00 PM
I really feel that one day - it will hopefully become a law whereby police officers will be allowed to enter a hospital- nursing home- doctor's office and/ or clinic and totally "UN-ANNOUNCED" - be allowed to perform "drug" testing by taking blood /urine samples -blood test - sobriety test- breath test as they do on the nation's roads
for impaired (dui and/or drug impaired drivers) BUT this time for any and ALL medical staffers. That should become a LAW!!!
My husband died of medical abandonement in an Emergency room- I alwasy felt the surgeon seemed impaired- either drunk- hung-over or something of that nature- of course tha was never brought up--- but died on a sunday morning- and the guy was pale - unable to act and make decisions- yet my husband's liufe was in his hands- guided more than likely by an impaired MIND!! ( I suspected alcohol or DRUGS)--- HOW I would love for our lawmakers to allow these un-announced drug testings... I hope and pray this will help reduce patient's medical errors/ and deaths in the USA!
Suzanne Reid 941-661-9263
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Andrew William 09/17/2008 9:03:00 PM
I am new to this post.Anyway its a good idea for future.
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Andrew William
california dui
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N. McCarthy MD 08/15/2008 1:27:00 AM
In reviewing the impaired physician programs of various states, MAP of Arizona is notable for doing comparatively little ongoing recovery work with its participating physicians beyond checking their urine on a regular basis for prohibited substances. This does nothing to support the real change necessary to recover and maintain solid remission from the otherwise chronic, progressive and ultimately fatal disease of addiction to alcohol or psychoactive substances. Physicians' health programs in other states that attend carefully to this can post much better long term rates of recovery e.g. Washington state [whose program is very comprehensive], Texas, Ohio, or Kentucky. The Federation of State Physician Health Programs lays out this type of comprehensive setup in its recommendations for a model impaired physicians program. They also recommend that these programs be set up as nonprofit organizations separate from the state medical boards and the various state medical societies [but accountable to both sets of stakeholders through a board of directors or trustees]. The MAP in Arizona is strictly a proprietary and for-profit venture that contracts with the Arizona Medical Board.
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Patrick 07/30/2008 11:50:00 PM
Dr. Mahl did not make it too long. Search for Dr. Mahl on the AZ Medical Board website, http://www.azmd.gov/. On or around 7/21/08, he tested positive for THC and cannabinoids (pot). His license was ordered inactive on 7/29/08 based on his request. From what I understand, his request may save him from a mandatory 5 year wait for reinstatement that would result from a revokation of his license due to this relapse. The rules & protocol seem to defy logic.
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vinus 07/01/2008 4:35:00 AM
I imagine it would interest a wide audience. Activity ... because there is much to be done in this world for ourselves and others. Activity includes service ... as we foster our gratitude for our liberation, the medical board is responsibility to help others to get well from the problem and Self-reliance gives recovery from your illness.
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vinus
Addiction Recovery Arizona
Addiction Recovery Arizona
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Disgusted MD 06/27/2008 8:30:00 PM
Being an alcoholic is no big deal unless you are a physician, and people have these unrealistic expectations of what physicians should be. A physician who gets a DUI and goes through 5 years of testing shouldn't be villified by the press or public. Very few of the MDs in the program are of the severity of addiction that this article presents. Most about 90 percent never have another problem, and most never practice, and never did, in an intoxicated state. Most of the physicians give good health care. If they know they are going to get publically shamed and punished for trying to take care of a problem like a DUI, or personal problems, then those physicians won't seek help, and will get worse. The public's eagerness to punish and villify physicians with an alcohol or drug problem is sick. Those people don't deserve to be treated by a physcian at all.
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A. Dozier 04/10/2008 10:56:00 PM
Thanks for another great expose. It's high time that somebody starts holding these "professionals" accountable. I am so sick of hearing about people with stressfull jobs (doctors, lawyers, cops, politicians) using the excuse that "stress" made them do it. Try having to raise 9 kids on your own on a single income with chronic illnesses (diabetes/back problems) while still finding time for your kids. My mom has and continues to do it, without alchohol or drugs, most times refusing to even take prescription pain killers for her back problems. So stress? Hah! If a 52 year old woman can survive lifes harships 24 hours a day, then these little twits can survive it for how ever long their shifts are.
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The Truth 03/31/2008 7:02:00 PM
Tina Minasian refuses to take responsibility for HER actions. She chose to smoke against doctors orders. She chose to gain a bunch of weight after having surgery which affected her scar. If you take a pair of pants in for alteration and then you gain a bunch of weight and force yourself into those pants, what happens? The seems bust. Not the doctors fault! She lost her lawsuit and appeals because there was NO malpractice. She has spent over 5 years stalking this doctor and his family. This is all about revenge against a doctor that didn't make her beautiful, didn't fix her marrital problems, and didn't make her rich. For more on the truth, you can go to:
www.standingup4truth.blogspot.com
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Shannon 03/13/2008 11:14:00 PM
I was under Dr. Grade's care for 11 years. He was always thoughtful and patient. Sometimes we waited to see him for hours but we didn't mind, when our turn came, he spent half an hour or more with us, suggesting various treatments, Yoga, physical therapy, Tai-chi etc. He never acted or looked "drugged out". He was always professional. The office was full of patients at 8pm in the 90's, he probably worked until much later. That would cause stress!!! Trying to walk around the office with a hip that was replaced years before and in pain from a ruptured disk in his back, yet putting the patients first, small wonder he made a "typo" on a Rx. If any one needed stress relief, it was Dr. Grade. He was working 15 hours + a day, in pain! In the new building, his hours did not decrease much. He never acted or sounded impaired. It's a shock to learn of a patients death, I can only imagine how badly he feels about that poor woman, knowing how much he cared for his patients. His wife is correct, he was a wonderful man and doctor. As for addicted doctors : There should be preventitive measures in place as there are in other professions, seeing a therapist every year is a good start, especially if the person is at risk from prior behavior, do the 5 year drug testing and see a "shrink" once a year as long as they see patients.
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christy 03/13/2008 2:33:00 PM
It's about time somebody recognized this was going on. I remember talking to the board about Locknikar, and they werent very concerned at all about Locknikar's drug use. He took my money and I was never able to find him again. Plus, he did my eye's while under the influence. Nicest guy, very charming and most people like him. Great surgeon, but very tragic circumstances. But the board let it happen---fully aware of the situation.
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youngMD 03/13/2008 2:14:00 PM
This is perhaps one of the most poorly written, scandalous articles I've read on the subject. And to end things just as sloppily, the last point, made by Dr. Grade's wife, completely contradicts the article's inital message.
Medicine is becoming less gratifying of a profession because of the general attitudes that society seems to confer upon doctors. Everyone demands perfect results, designer drugs, service with a smile, and immediate availability. It seems like the public, in general, with their litiginous and impetuous attitudes are driving practicing physicians into earlier retirement, sub-specialization, and overall, a state of resentment and mistrust of the people they dedicated so many years of their life into helping. Physicians fall under the same percentages of divorce, substance abuse, and mental health issues that the general population falls under (just as lawyers, pharmacists, nurses, accountants, etc. do). Yet, as the Board supports, one less physician in Arizona leaves thousands without care. Perhaps a strong component of training physicians needs to be on how to handle the stress of life-long dehumanization.
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formerrn 03/12/2008 10:49:00 AM
it is no wonder Drs have turned to drugs, when you look at the patients they are catering to. Drug seekers, demanding family members who have POA in hand who dont want to take care of them or take any responsiblity, non compliant, law suit happy indiviuals, lawyers ready to pounce, the life of Dr is not what is used to be, between the paper work and the phone calls that have to be placed to the dr in the middle of the nite because, pt/family demands it, the hours worked, no respect. They give the drug seekers the drugs knowing they arent in pain and hope they leave and move on the next hospital, it is a nitemare the cover your ass that is done just because of agencys , looking over your shoulder. Look at the hospitalist on 30 year probation for alcohol, drug seeking non complient for not getting old records ,(that would proobably use his ink up on his fax ) it is time consuming, for what to legally dish out narcotics. then BOMEX has a {martha steawart list for drug seeking patients} list goes on and on. these people do it to themselves. It is rare to find a "real Patient" BOMEX needs to work the bedside just like the St Bd of nurses, put on their scrubs!
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withheld 03/12/2008 5:10:00 AM
Wow!! What a story! Too bad the New Times omitted the best part about Dr. Locnikar's messy little license problem; the late night romp at the Cottonwood Inn where PV police found him with a drugged and disoriented stripper. You can read about it here... http://www.azdo.gov/docimages/2669_01_25_2006_103423.pdf
And he is applying to get his license back??? Well, he just may get it as he expects to. As a DO, Dr. Locnikar is subject to the much more lenient osteopathic board. If he was an MD, and monitored be the allopathic board, there would be no discussion... DENIED. That is the real travesty here. We should first enact legislation to fold the osteopathic board under the umbrella of the much more rigorous allopathic board, then make any changes necessary to protect ALL patients, not just continue to hack away at the problems piecemeal on different fronts.
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rich 03/11/2008 3:58:00 PM
An est. of 90,000 staph infection deaths,
An est. of 90,000 malpractice deaths,
and 10's,1,000s people suffer disabilities from medical professions
and many more because of insurance companies not providing whats needed by the doctor
And doctors are not regulated, reviewed, monitored, UNTIL their busted, and then for ONLY 5 yrs, and the this success rate is 5 out 50, and monitored for 5years.
I think this proves they can't be trusted
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justine 03/11/2008 2:40:00 PM
I am still upset about how BOMEX handled a case wtih a anesthsia in LHC. He was a new grad from NY came in and was there to get rid of a few Drs Anesthsia(GOOD ones) he started harrrassing one esp. and they had fist fight in the Drs lounge and trashed the Drs lounge , the Ny Dr did not get fired the excellent one did. THEN a woman came in for surgery, this Dr who was making bucks for the For profit hospital HRMC; was rushing the cases. He did not wait for pregnancy test. Surgery done he gave a combination of drugs _teratogenic! and then .....wala after the surgerys over--she's pregnant. Well he ordered verbally "morning after pill " {abortion pill} from pharmacy, The pharmacist came to OR wanting to know why they needed that in surgery. Well this NY Dr Samuel Rosanthal,extubated in OR and woke her up in the OR (not usual procedure) and told her she's pregnant and she needed to take this pill tried shoving it down her throat, she was wake enough to refuse. Surgery techs and nurses standing their and no one said a word. I find out and called the police , this is pre meditated attempted murder, "are you friends with her? and passed the phone around did nothing. Then I called the prosecutor, "I wouldnt be interested in this type of case" the woman filed a law suit so BOMEX gets involved, they made him write a letter stating he changed they way he did thing!!! So basically got a slp on the hand. This Ny Dr Samuel Rosenthal is back in NY as far as we know. The pharmiscist was flown to Good Sam after attempted suicide. He was fired from the hosptial, the woman who was also a nurse their was constructively discharged. If a nurse tried covering up a mistake like that she'd be in prison, he had to "write a letter" SHAME ON THE BOARD OD MEDICAL EXAMMINERS!!!! I hope it happens to their family.
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Katherine 03/11/2008 4:24:00 AM
I was treated by Dr. Mahl when he was working for Value Options at the Park North Site back in about 2002 until 2004. I had read about him through BOMEX and it just made me feel ill every time I went for an appointment. He seemed all jazzed up on caffeine or something and just made me nervous. I had no idea at the time as to how to change doctors. Five bucks says he relapses if he hasn't already.
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Dave Martin 03/10/2008 8:38:00 PM
Wow...I'm not really shocked to read this but wonder...
My Wife was referred to Dr. Lockincar by Cigna for a Nasal problem that required surgery. Although everything went well I wondered at the time about him. Fancy office, well dressed, doing nasal surgery? One would assume a Doctor would've been checked by Cigna before he made it onto their providor list.
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Name Withheld 03/10/2008 6:38:00 PM
I think it's unfair to say that the state's approach to dealing with physicians and substance abuse is largely "hands-off". By statute, all physicians and their affiliated entities are required to report such behavior and usually do, backed by legal teams and the comfort of knowing their little "slip-up" will remain confidential. Whenever a doctor or licensed healthcare provider is accused of or admits to any kind of substance abuse, the first thing that occurs is an automatic interview, drug screen and referral, with merit, to an evaluation facility of the state's choosing. Oftentimes long-standing abuse issues are noted or detected during, if necessary, treatment. As far as I'm aware, the state medical board does review and randomly drug-screen these physicians between 2 to 5 years after the incident occurs. If the general public would not have to screen for more than 5 years, why should the physician, especially since it's on their dime the entire time? I'm not condoning the drugged-up physician's actions and certainly would not want to be operated on by a physician with a relapse in his past. It just seems unfair to say that one of the only state agencies taking their role in protecting the public seriously is being targeted for such a complex issue. Why not focus on the lacking agencies and really bring the state of the state into the light?
