MA dentist has license suspended

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Permalink Reply by Mary Yakas on January 3, 2012 at 8:35am

I'd like to say I'm surprised...but.... just ask Dr. Molinari and Nancy Andrews.  They hear about this stuff all the time!

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Permalink Reply by Dental Sales Rep on January 4, 2012 at 7:14pm

Yep, I remember going into several oral surgery offices and ortho offices where the dentist did not think it was a good idea to invest in an ultrasonic cleaner.  Pretty scary and cheap.

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Permalink Reply by Ricklin on January 6, 2012 at 10:11am

Sounds like another case of "the rules don't apply to me" Uhhh yes, they do. There was a similar case here in WA, the Dr. was initially suspended, went back to work, had a large number of employee and patient complaints.

He lost his license for 5 years +20K in fines.

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Permalink Reply by Richard McManus, DMD on January 9, 2012 at 8:04am

 

The case is really interesting if you wish to read it all. 2 patients complain to the state board. The state board investigates and dismisses the patient complaints for insufficient evidence but continues its investigation of OSHA compliance! OSHA is a federal Law and unenforceable by the states. Instead of just calling OSHA (maybe they did!) the Massachusetts Board goes ahead to site him on OSHA violations & suspend his license (in 2004). Everyone sues each other and in 2011 the Mass. Supreme court throws out all of the state’s objections to OSHA’s insufficient recorded keeping/compliance/ Hep B vaccination etc. and finds that not having weekly spore testing of his autoclave is sufficient for State Board discipline action.

Interesting also in that OSHA has a history of issuing citations but giving time to correct the issues sited before any penalties are demanded. probably a 100K in legal expenses.

Dick McManus

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Permalink Reply by Ricklin on January 9, 2012 at 12:43pm

Dick,

Some of this stuff is just flat ass crazy. I remember dentistry b4 gloves and masks, and offices that did not own an autoclave! Is the patient better off today?? And to what degree??

At the end of the day, it is about the patient.

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Permalink Reply by Dental Sales Rep on January 9, 2012 at 12:56pm

It does seem as if this dentist was made an example of.  We know darn well that OSHA does not have enough feet on the street to monitor what dental offices do.

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Permalink Reply by Richard McManus, DMD on January 9, 2012 at 5:24pm

You would be suprised they do respond to complaints regularly

Dick McManus

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Permalink Reply by Richard McManus, DMD on January 9, 2012 at 5:23pm

Ricklin;

Well, OSHA is all about your employees not your patients. I too can remember before the gloves & masks but I would never return to that day because we were crazy not wearing them. Every office needs an autoclave; we have two and a dry heat oven. I do believe patients are better off today because of all the efforts by the manufacturers to make the office environment safer. The government regulations have helped but increased the cost of dental care at the same time. What concerns me is that the Dental board was sent to the office for a specific reason- the two compliants- which they found to be without evidence-  but the board continued it's investigation into other employee aspects of the office and found deficiencies - mostly of  clerical deficiencies and thru the book a the dentist. God knows how much the state of Massachuestts spend from 2004 to 2011 in litigtaion that went al the way to the Mass. Supreme court. Wouldn't it have be better to just call OSHA; then them do the investigation and when the OSHA finding were reveiled just suspend his license at that time.

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