admin @ Tue, 2005-10-25 16:46
ROCHESTER — Partly driven by the Dr. Terry Bennett controversy, a local state senator is sponsoring legislation that will create an oversight committee for people to go to when they feel wronged by regulatory boards.
Sen. Richard Green (R-Rochester) said the committee, to be made up of legislators and residents, will give licensed professionals another way to counter the board's decisions without going through a costly legal battle.
Green's been mulling the concept the past few years, but he said Bennett's situation brought the matter to the forefront.
Bennett's awaiting a hearing before the Board of Medicine for his alleged comments to an obese patient in 2004 and remarks a brain-injured patient claimed he made in 2001, which were previously labeled "unfounded" by the state's investigating agency.
Bennett's lawyers and the state will meet for a prehearing conference Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the board's offices at 2 Industrial Park Drive in Concord.
Based on what's available on the public record, Green said the state's case against Bennett has gone on too long. "I think it should have been dismissed," he said.
Green said "when you see a case like Dr. Bennett's you get very concerned that the board is taking action which seems to be more than is necessary for the situation that is made public by the complaint."
Furthermore, Green said it's "ludicrous" that a single complaint over an alleged comment can rise to the level where a doctor faces suspension or losing his license to practice medicine. And Green said he disagreed with the state tacking on the 2001 complaint in an attempt to prove Bennett's most recent comment demonstrated a pattern of behavior.
Bennett, in addition to saying the complaints against him are baseless and violate his constitutional rights, has maintained from the day he went public that the Board of Medicine and the Attorney General's Office are carrying out an agenda with their prosecution of the case.
He has gone so far as to say that Assistant Attorney General Catherine Bernhard, the hearing counsel for the case, is "ignoring the law" by investigating the matter. 'Why do we have such people in positions of power without any supervision," Bennett said last week.
In painting a picture of a board and AG's office that is out to get him and other medical providers, Bennett has also singled out board member Dr. James Clifford. Bennett has said Clifford was fired by Frisbie Memorial Hospital and a private practice because of poor patient treatment and abusive behavior.
Rick Renner, who owned the practice, said he did not fire Clifford. "I can't support his specific recollection of things, and I think my recollection is more correct than his," Renner said of Bennett in an August interview.
Clifford was fired from the hospital in 1996 over patient complaints, which were disclosed two months after he raised concerns over the way the hospital was handling a doctor who was caught taking drugs from the hospital pharmacy, according to court records.
Clifford sued over his firing, and in 1998 reached a settlement with the hospital that he was entitled to compensatory damages for "Frisbie's alleged malicious, bad faith, and oppressive termination."
Recently a group called "Friends of Dr. Bennett" sent the board members packets of information, some of it painting a false picture of Clifford and his career, according to his attorney, William Shaheen.
Shaheen, who defended his client's integrity and professionalism, said he sent a letter to the group's mailing address asking it provide the names of the people behind the packages. He said Clifford recused himself from the case when he found out the board was investigating Bennett, who he knows.
Two other board members, Kevin Costin and Cynthia Cooper, are also recused from the hearing, according to board documents.
Bennett has denied having anything to do with the mailings. He said supporters behind the website, www.havenotsfordrbennett.com , are in touch with people who provided them with classified Frisbie documents.
The 2004 complaint against Bennett alleges he told an obese woman that if her obese husband died before her the only man that might want to be with her would be a black man. Bennett denied the comments.
After the board asked the Attorney General's Offive Administrative Prosecution Unit to investigate, the state proposed Bennett admit guilt and attend a medical evaluation course. He denied, though he did apologize to the woman.
The 2001 complaint, already investigated, alleges Bennett told a brain-injured woman to buy a gun as a means of killing herself. Bennett has denied the comments.
Bennett's lawyers are trying to get the complaints dismissed, claiming they violate his rights to free speech and due process. Bennett has also said the investigation hinges on fourth-degree hearsay and puts him in double jeopardy.
The state has yet to respond to the lawyers' motion to dismiss the case.
Shortly after, when the Legislature convenes, Green will be working on the bill, which he said he hopes will provide a check on the "super power" of such appointed boards.
The bill would apply to all regulatory boards, Green said, adding in the last three years eight or nine complaints from people before various boards have been brought to him.
"There isn't enough discussion with the authority of these boards to affect people's lives that I think there need to be ...," he said.
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