This is a blog for the Mental Health Policy Class at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

January 31, 2008

Lax oversight favors doctors over patients

PART 1: [Wisconsin's] lax system of oversight favors doctors over patients. A Journal Sentinel review of five years' worth of disciplinary action found that the board is slow to look into complaints, keeps many of its investigations secret and rarely imposes serious discipline, even when patients die.

PART 2: The patient, a man who had been injured on the job, was feeling out of it and dizzy and his vision was blurred. Huffman checked the patient's IV, according to court records. The next thing the man knew, he said, he felt Huffman performing oral sex on him. Three months after the February 1991 incident, a second patient at St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee said he awoke to Huffman indecently touching him. In June 1991 Huffman was charged with two felonies. He pleaded guilty to reduced charges of misdemeanor sexual assault in January 1992. The doctor went to jail. But he didn't lose his medical license. State officials say they took progressively harsher action against Huffman over the next decade - action they thought would protect patients. They were wrong.
Despite his record, Huffman managed to get hired at three other facilities. Patients at two of them accused him of sexual misconduct. His license was revoked effective Feb. 28, 2002 - 11 years after his first documented sexual assault of a patient.

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