Here's a must-read, in case you missed it. Last week the Orange County Register published an investigation looking at the Medical Board of California’s decisions to reinstate doctors after stripping them of their licenses to practice medicine.
Flickr photo by PeterChad
The story was a comprehensive follow-up to articles by the Register about an Anaheim obstetrician who had been stripped of his license after being accused of gross negligence. That doctor now stands accused of gross negligence a second time.
The Register did not find a second case of a reinstated doctor accused of gravely harming patients again.
However, it found that some doctors were given their licenses back after spending more time in prison than they had spent in medical school. One had tried to hire an undercover cop to kill his ex-wife. Another had pleaded guilty to charges linked to bilking the worker’s compensation system out of $30 million before getting the go-ahead to see patients again.
All told, 1,017 doctors were stripped of their licenses in the last decade. During that time, 123 doctors tried to get their licenses back. More than half, 66, prevailed.
Of those, 16 got in trouble again, the Register reported.
Reporter Courtney Perkes highlighted the story of one doctor who was reinstated over the strenuous objections of one former Medical Board member. That member went on to state office, where he wrote a law preventing the very scenario he presided over in the first place, the Register reported. Here are the details about the doctor:
El Centro neurologist Thomas Tartaro was accused by the medical board of sexually abusing female patients, often telling them to remove their clothing for an exam and then rubbing his genitals against their buttocks and suggesting sex acts. Prosecutors charged him with eight counts of sexual battery; his probation report said that another eight victims declined to press charges.
"This officer can think of nothing worse that a doctor could do to his patients," a probation officer wrote in a pre-sentencing report.
Tartaro pled no contest in 1994 to one felony charge of sexual battery on a restrained victim, a deal which allowed him to avoid state prison, records show. A judge sent Tartaro to the Imperial County Jail for 90 days instead. His license was revoked in 1995.
When Tartaro sought reinstatement of his license five years later, he said he had been addicted to prescription drugs that he received as samples. He underwent treatment for drug abuse, volunteered by reading to the blind and testified that he would always feel guilt.
A judge found Tartaro showed "extreme remorse" for his crimes, "exemplary fortitude" in overcoming his addiction, and had maintained his "medical acumen." The board reinstated him in 2002 but barred him from practicing on female patients during his 10 years of probation.
The former medical board member who attempted to legislate Tartaro out of practice was Rudy Bermudez. Check it out:
After his election to the state Assembly a year after Tartaro's reinstatement, former medical board member Bermudez wrote legislation with him in mind.
The 2005 law permanently revokes the license of doctors for as long as they remain registered felony sex offenders. Those convicted before 2005 can be reinstated after five years if a Superior Court judge finds they pose no safety threat to patients, the law says.
"No one is owed a medical license," Bermudez said. "You earn it. It's a privilege to be a physician in California."
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