The Texas Medical Board (TMB) disciplined 26 doctors last month. These disciplinary efforts included quality of care concerns, allegations of unprofessional conduct, and violation of previous orders. The quality of care concerns included a physician who completed a rhizotomy on the wrong side, a physician who failed to provide proper back-up coverage including not addressing a patient’s bleeding, a failure to review abnormal test results and failure to provide follow-up care for patients after surgical procedures.
According to the board, the physicians accused of unprofessional conduct at this meeting were reprimanded for instances of behavior that led to federal allegations of healthcare fraud, inappropriate touching of patients, and failure to disclose eligibility issues when applying for the medical license in the state of Texas.
Another physician was accused of failing to meet the requirements of a previous order. However, upon review, the board realized the reason for the failure was financial constraints after the physician lost his job due to the negative impact of the pandemic on the practice where he was employed. As a result, they chose to modify the order.
Penalties for the quality of care concerns and the instances of unprofessional conduct included:
- Public reprimand
- Completion of additional CMEs, such as risk management, patient communication, and record keeping coursework
- Completion of additional exams, such as the Medical Jurisprudence Exam
- Administrative penalties
- Suspension
The board also revoked the medical licenses of three physicians at this meeting. The board accused all three of unprofessional conduct. The accused did not file a response to the allegations and failed to attend the State Office of Administrative Hearing. As a result, the board revoked their medical licenses and gave the physicians 25 days to file a motion for a rehearing.