danielle
11-22-2002, 01:14 PM
State seeks new evaluators after problems uncovered with recommended doctors
The Associated Press
11/21/02 9:49 AM
AUSTIN (AP) -- All but one of the doctors being considered to evaluate Texas' embattled prison health clinics have been dropped after a newspaper informed officials about the troubling backgrounds of several of the initial candidates.
The Austin American-Statesman reported in Thursday's editions that two of the seven doctors recommended to conduct the evaluation have had their medical licenses revoked or suspended for sexual misconduct, and another was cited this year for negligent care.
The other four candidates are either graduates of University of Texas medical schools or have professional ties to Texas prison officials or the UT System, despite a pledge to make the study independent of the state prison system or any ties to the UT System, which runs most of the clinics.
"We are going to start over," Dr. James Guckian, the UT System's acting executive vice chancellor for health affairs, said after the Statesman informed him about the doctors' backgrounds. "If there is some good news here, it is that none of these people, no one, (had) been appointed."
UT System Chancellor Mark Yudof last month asked Texas Health Commissioner Eduardo Sanchez to appoint an impartial, three-member team of experts with "laudable records in correctional health care" to conduct a special evaluation of prison health care.
His action followed continued complaints about the quality of care from convicts, their families and advocates for prisoners. UT's Medical Branch provides health care to 80 percent of Texas' 146,000 inmates. The Texas Tech University System cares for the rest.
Yudof offered to provide a list of possible candidates for Sanchez to consider for the team. The names came from UT Medical Branch officials and from others familiar with prison medicine, Guckian said.
Health Department officials said they added two names after consulting with UT.
On the UT list: Dr. Gail Williams, whose medical license has been revoked in two states for alleged sexual misconduct and other charges; and Dr. Beltran Pages, whose license was suspended for three years after a state board found he had sexually abused a female patient.
Williams, a psychiatrist, lost his first medical license in 1985 after Michigan's Board of Medicine found him guilty of having sex with a patient and fraudulently billing an insurance company for sexual encounters as therapy sessions. Michigan officials denied Williams' requests for reinstatement in 1987, 1989 and 1990.
He later lost an Oklahoma license and a job as chief of mental health services for Oklahoma prisons after being accused of sexually battering and harassing a prison nurse and other female staffers.
Without making mention of Williams' past troubles, UT officials noted in their list of suggestions that Williams "served as chief psychiatrist for the Alabama Department of Corrections for the last nine years."
Alabama prison officials said Williams worked for two private contract-care providers, not the state.
Williams did not return a phone call for comment Wednesday. In earlier interviews, he denied the allegations in Michigan and Oklahoma.
Pages, also a psychiatrist, had his license suspended in 1988 for three years after the Florida Board of Medicine said he had sexually abused a female patient. He denied the accusation.
The board reinstated his license in 1992, restricting him for a while to only treating men. Pages did not return a phone call Wednesday.
Another recommendation, Dr. Richard Garden, medical director at the Utah State Prison, received in June a nondisciplinary public warning and admonition for alleged negligence in treating a 62-year-old convict who died of pneumonia in 1998, Utah records show.
Garden did not return phone calls for comment.
UT and Health Department officials acknowledged that they did no background checks, but expressed surprise that the doctors with past licensing problems came so highly recommended.
"I would have thought, given the titles and positions of some of these people, that their backgrounds would have been reviewed by their existing and current employers," Guckian said.
The lone remaining candidate is Dr. Steven Shelton, a nationally known correctional physician who has been medical director for the Oregon Department of Corrections for the past decade.
Yudof said the recommended candidates were part of a "raw list" that he assumed would be scrutinized more closely by those who were making the selections.
McBride said that, although Health Department officials didn't envision that as part of their role, "you can bet we'll be doing background checks on everyone now."
Guckian said Wednesday's events will delay the evaluation's completion until late January.
The Associated Press
11/21/02 9:49 AM
AUSTIN (AP) -- All but one of the doctors being considered to evaluate Texas' embattled prison health clinics have been dropped after a newspaper informed officials about the troubling backgrounds of several of the initial candidates.
The Austin American-Statesman reported in Thursday's editions that two of the seven doctors recommended to conduct the evaluation have had their medical licenses revoked or suspended for sexual misconduct, and another was cited this year for negligent care.
The other four candidates are either graduates of University of Texas medical schools or have professional ties to Texas prison officials or the UT System, despite a pledge to make the study independent of the state prison system or any ties to the UT System, which runs most of the clinics.
"We are going to start over," Dr. James Guckian, the UT System's acting executive vice chancellor for health affairs, said after the Statesman informed him about the doctors' backgrounds. "If there is some good news here, it is that none of these people, no one, (had) been appointed."
UT System Chancellor Mark Yudof last month asked Texas Health Commissioner Eduardo Sanchez to appoint an impartial, three-member team of experts with "laudable records in correctional health care" to conduct a special evaluation of prison health care.
His action followed continued complaints about the quality of care from convicts, their families and advocates for prisoners. UT's Medical Branch provides health care to 80 percent of Texas' 146,000 inmates. The Texas Tech University System cares for the rest.
Yudof offered to provide a list of possible candidates for Sanchez to consider for the team. The names came from UT Medical Branch officials and from others familiar with prison medicine, Guckian said.
Health Department officials said they added two names after consulting with UT.
On the UT list: Dr. Gail Williams, whose medical license has been revoked in two states for alleged sexual misconduct and other charges; and Dr. Beltran Pages, whose license was suspended for three years after a state board found he had sexually abused a female patient.
Williams, a psychiatrist, lost his first medical license in 1985 after Michigan's Board of Medicine found him guilty of having sex with a patient and fraudulently billing an insurance company for sexual encounters as therapy sessions. Michigan officials denied Williams' requests for reinstatement in 1987, 1989 and 1990.
He later lost an Oklahoma license and a job as chief of mental health services for Oklahoma prisons after being accused of sexually battering and harassing a prison nurse and other female staffers.
Without making mention of Williams' past troubles, UT officials noted in their list of suggestions that Williams "served as chief psychiatrist for the Alabama Department of Corrections for the last nine years."
Alabama prison officials said Williams worked for two private contract-care providers, not the state.
Williams did not return a phone call for comment Wednesday. In earlier interviews, he denied the allegations in Michigan and Oklahoma.
Pages, also a psychiatrist, had his license suspended in 1988 for three years after the Florida Board of Medicine said he had sexually abused a female patient. He denied the accusation.
The board reinstated his license in 1992, restricting him for a while to only treating men. Pages did not return a phone call Wednesday.
Another recommendation, Dr. Richard Garden, medical director at the Utah State Prison, received in June a nondisciplinary public warning and admonition for alleged negligence in treating a 62-year-old convict who died of pneumonia in 1998, Utah records show.
Garden did not return phone calls for comment.
UT and Health Department officials acknowledged that they did no background checks, but expressed surprise that the doctors with past licensing problems came so highly recommended.
"I would have thought, given the titles and positions of some of these people, that their backgrounds would have been reviewed by their existing and current employers," Guckian said.
The lone remaining candidate is Dr. Steven Shelton, a nationally known correctional physician who has been medical director for the Oregon Department of Corrections for the past decade.
Yudof said the recommended candidates were part of a "raw list" that he assumed would be scrutinized more closely by those who were making the selections.
McBride said that, although Health Department officials didn't envision that as part of their role, "you can bet we'll be doing background checks on everyone now."
Guckian said Wednesday's events will delay the evaluation's completion until late January.