Hundreds of Medical Complaints Destroyed : Doctors: Agency facing loss of state funding ordered cases to be dismissed or shredded in 1990, inquiry shows.

Top officials of the California Medical Board ordered the dismissal or destruction of hundreds of complaints against doctors in 1990 in an attempt to erase a backlog that had caused the Legislature to threaten the board’s funding, a California Highway Patrol investigation found Wednesday.

Among the cases closed, the CHP report said, were several involving patients’ complaints against medical personnel at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles who were accused of having been “culpable in the deaths of five patients.”

The CHP findings, which were termed “shocking” by state officials who oversee the state’s licensing boards, are expected to further undermine public confidence in an agency that has been widely criticized for failing to adequately police California’s medical profession.

The criticism reached its height in 1989 when the University of San Diego’s Center for Public Interest Law concluded in a lengthy report that the board was so ineffective that it was moribund.

“(The Medical Board) has not been protecting consumers for a number of years,” said Steve Barrow, the center’s lobbyist, in an interview Wednesday. “It is also clear that those (physicians) who have killed patients with bad medical practice are still out there.”

In releasing the 31-page CHP investigation, state officials said the wholesale dismissal of cases was part of a pattern of misconduct and mismanagement that began in the late 1980s and continued through 1991.

“An outrageous abuse of the public trust,” said Sandra Smoley, who two weeks ago became secretary of the Consumer Services Agency.

In addition to the improper case closures, CHP investigators found during their eight-month investigation that Medical Board officials had lied to the Legislature about the extent of the backlog and had ordered that patients not be told that their complaints had been dismissed.

The report also said some administrators in a Medical Board program that attempts to rehabilitate doctors with alcohol and drug abuse problems had repeatedly misused state vehicles and travel privileges and that at least one official had improperly accepted gifts.

“We are bringing to a close a sad chapter in the 116-year history of the Medical Board,” said Dixon Arnett, the board’s new executive director.

The Medical Board is the state agency that licenses and disciplines California physicians and other medical professionals. Governed by a 19-member appointed board, it has a staff of 284, including investigators, and can take a variety of disciplinary actions against errant doctors that includes revoking their licenses. It is also required to report to district attorneys when it believes that a crime may have been committed by a medical professional.

Both Arnett and Consumer Affairs Department Director Jim Conran conceded that the revelations would contribute to consumer distrust of the state’s medical profession and the government’s ability to protect consumers against incompetent and negligent doctors.

“The few who have abused the public trust . . . are causing distrust of the thousands who have done their jobs in a competent and professional manner,” Arnett said.

The two men pledged to immediately “rectify the situation,” announcing that in six weeks they would convene a “Medical Board summit” of community, consumer and medical leaders. They said the summit would begin a comprehensive review of all aspects of the board’s policies and procedures with particular emphasis on enforcement of physician standards.

Concerns about a lack of enforcement at the Medical Board led Gov. Pete Wilson to take steps to install a new management team even before the official CHP investigation, Conran said.

He said that Ken Wagstaff, who was executive director when the abuses occurred, was pressured to resign late last year and that none of the former board members were reappointed when their terms expired. He said a majority of the agency’s governing board are Wilson appointees.

Medical Board President Jacquelin Trestrail, a San Diego physician, said she intends to unveil an eight-point plan for improving the agency’s operation.

In the meantime, Arnett said he has begun procedures that could lead to the eventual firing of up to eight officials.

He said three from the diversion program--Chet Pelton, Dennis Spatola and Doug Oliver--had been placed on administrative leave. In addition, disciplinary procedures had been begun against another five administrators who were unidentified because they are also peace officers. (State law prohibits the release of names of any peace officers who are the subject of disciplinary action.)

Arnett said he had not decided what action would be taken against Assistant Director Tom Heerhartz , who according to the report told the Legislature in 1990 that there was a backlog of 600 cases even though he knew the actual figure was 800.

Conran did not rule out the possibility that some evidence may be turned over to district attorneys for criminal investigation, although a final decision must await study of material amassed by the CHP.

CHP investigators declined to speculate on the motive behind the mass dismissal of cases, though the apparent reason was to reduce the bureaucratic backlog. The CHP noted that the action came when the Legislature was demanding that the agency reduce its 1,100-case backlog. There was no indication that cases were chosen for shredding to protect particular doctors with influence on the Medical Board.

At one point, they said, legislators withheld approval of portions of the executive director’s salary and the agency’s operating budget until it could demonstrate at least a 15% reduction in the backlog.

The dismissals were ordered by a three-member management team, the report said, even though preliminary examinations by Medical Board staff had determined that all the cases merited further investigation.

In the Medical Board’s dismissal of cases, CHP investigators said, some files were retained while others were closed “without merit,” a procedure that required that they be shredded within 60 days.

Because the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center files were among those retained--though they were no longer being investigated by the Medical Board--they will be reopened.

The report said the cases at the hospital had been referred to the board by the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, after a series of articles in The Times documented several instances in which medical mistakes at the 430-bed county-operated hospital in Watts may have led to patients’ deaths.

Although the cases were complicated, the report said only one investigator was assigned to gather evidence. It said that after two years his work was reviewed and it was determined that more investigation was needed. But instead of continuing work on the cases, the agency closed them, CHP investigators said.

Conran said the CHP investigation was prompted by complaints made to him by the union representing Medical Board investigators, the California Assn. of Union Safety Employees (CAUSE). He said the CHP agreed to conduct the investigation after Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren said it would be a conflict of interest for him to investigate an agency for which his office also provided legal representation.

Although it was never officially cited as a reason for his refusal, Lungren also had a problem because his father, John Lungren, has been a member of the Medical Board.