Clinic Director Says Alleged Impostor Had Doctor’s Skill

The man who called himself Dr. Alvin James Stewart was so careful and skilled at setting broken bones, suturing wounds and performing other treatments that he must have been trained as a physician, the director of the clinic where an alleged impostor worked said Wednesday.

“Patients were referring other members of their families to him,” Dr. Francis Foo, medical director of Emergi-Care Family Center, said of Enrique Herrera, who was arrested by state officials Monday night on suspicion of practicing medicine without a license. “We still think he is a physician, maybe under another name.”

Officials with the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance said Herrera, 36, of Santa Ana acquired the credentials of retired Oxnard physician Alvin Stewart, 65, and practiced medicine at Emergi-Care’s Fountain Valley and Westminster offices since November, 1984.

Herrera remained in Orange County Jail Wednesday on $100,000 bail. He also is charged with one count of perjury, one count of forging a prescription to obtain narcotics and 13 additional counts of forging other prescriptions.

Foo said he hired Herrera, whom he knew as Jim, when the medical director was looking for another staff physician for the two walk-in emergency clinics. Herrera said he was about 49 or 50 and presented a resume, a state medical license number and a federal Drug Enforcement Agency card, necessary for physicians to write prescriptions, all in Stewart’s name, Foo said. There was nothing on that documentation listing the real Stewart’s age, he said.

Herrera told Foo he had been in private practice in Northern California for years and was now interested in working in a walk-in emergency clinic, the medical director said. Foo did not ask for references or for further proof. “I guess I learned the hard way,” he said. He did require Herrera to obtain malpractice insurance, and he is fairly certain Herrera did so because letters mailed to Stewart from a doctor’s insurance company were received at the clinic, Foo said.

One spokesman for a doctor’s insurance company said the insurance policy would be invalid if it were obtained by fraud. “His insurance is no better than his medical license,” the spokesman said.

Foo said he assumed that the insurance company had checked out his new staff physician and that there was no reason to be suspicious because “his technical skills were so good. . . . How was I to know?”

Herrera even sewed a cut on Foo’s hand and it healed without a scar, the medical director said.

“His performance was quite good. There’s no question in my mind that he’s a physician.” The man posing as Stewart knew what he was capable of doing and knew when to refer patients to specialists, Foo said. After Herrera’s arrest, Foo asked an orthopedic surgeon, to whom the clinic refers patients, his opinion of Herrera, and the surgeon responded that Herrera was “above average,” Foo said.

Herrera did not act like he had a hidden secret, Foo said. Once, he recalled, Herrera suggested that they confer about the malpractice insurance issue; another time he reported a case of suspected child abuse to authorities.

“If he was hiding something, he wouldn’t be reporting to the authorities,” the medical director said.

The man he knew as Jim was a large, confident and outgoing man who quickly became well liked by the staff, although they did marvel that he looked “well preserved” for 50, Foo said.

Ken Wagstaff, director of the Board of Medical Quality Assurance, said Wednesday that investigators are still trying to learn how Herrera allegedly obtained Stewart’s credentials and how he was hired at the walk-in medical center.

Unlike hospitals and clinics, the burgeoning emergency care centers do not need to be licensed, Wagstaff said. Hospitals, before granting staff privileges to a physician, are required to check on the doctor’s credentials with the Board of Medical Quality Assurance. That information also is available to doctors’ offices and other businesses hiring physicians, he said.

Detailed Information

Had such a check been made, the walk-in center would have found out not only the status of Alvin Stewart’s license, but also his date of birth, his year of graduation from medical school and other biographical information, Wagstaff said.

“Day after day, month after month, thousands of questions like that get asked” of BMQA records officials, Wagstaff said.

In addition, he recommends that employers ask the applying doctor where he or she has hospital staff privileges because that hospital will have performed a credentials and background check, Wagstaff said. If the applicant does not have staff privileges, more questions need to be asked, he said.

Foo said he believes that this case is rare and that the need for such questioning was not apparent because of the convincing documents and performance.

Both he and the other doctor on staff at Emergi-Care are board-certified family practice physicians, he said.

The clinic staff is still shocked by the news of Herrera’s arrest, Foo said. They are torn between feeling sorry for the man they liked so well and feeling betrayed, he added.

“They were hurt when they found out. They liked him and they trusted him,” Foo said. “This hurts the clinic and them personally.”