Medical Board Sues Administrator for Non-Disclosure : Hospitals: State agency brings civil action against official, saying he failed to reveal disciplinary actions that had been levied in Gilroy against two physicians.

Making good on its promise to crack down on hospital administrators who withhold information about disciplinary actions against doctors, the state Medical Board filed its first-ever civil action Monday against the former head of a Gilroy hospital for failing to report actions against two physicians.

The action was taken against Bryan Ballard, the former chief executive officer of South Valley Hospital in Gilroy, and seeks $10,000 in fines, $5,000 for each doctor.

In an announcement released in Sacramento, the Medical Board alleges that Ballard failed to notify the state, as required by law, that he and his hospital had disciplined two anesthesiologists then employed there.

Ballard, who now heads a hospital in Delano, did not return a telephone call left with his office.

The Medical Board, charged with licensing and disciplining doctors, has suspended the licenses of the two physicians, one of whom is now in state prison for non-hospital related crimes.

In announcing the action, Dixon Arnett, the executive director of the board, said he was concerned that the public health was being endangered by hospitals that either do not file or file late or incomplete reports about physician discipline.

“I am very concerned that some hospitals are withholding information, thereby compromising the long-vaunted system of peer review and endangering consumers’ welfare,” he said.

He added that he hopes Monday’s announcement “rings a large alarm bell in the physician and hospital community that making these reports in a timely manner is vital for patient protection.”

Earlier this year, the Medical Board itself conceded in an article in The Times that it was not fully disclosing to the public malpractice actions against California physicians as required by law.

In the Gilroy case, Arnett said that even though Ballard failed to file the proper reports, the Medical Board initiated its own action against the two physicians based on complaints it received from hospital workers and patients.

One case involved Dr. Larry Weiss, whom the board said attracted attention from the nursing staff beginning in 1990 for exhibiting “bizarre behavior” and subsequently was required to undergo routine drug testing.

Although the tests failed to reveal drug use, the bizarre behavior continued, the board said. The board quoted a nursing report that said on one occasion in 1991, Weiss, attempting to inject medication into an intravenous line before a surgery, repeatedly missed the line and instead injected the medication into bedding.

Ballard met repeatedly with Weiss, who eventually was suspended in 1991, but the board was never informed, Arnett said. “We still haven’t received proper notification,” Arnett said Monday.

The second case involved Dr. James E. Pearson, currently serving a prison sentence for a series of felony convictions including sexual battery and rape. Prior to the convictions, complaints were made to the hospital beginning in 1991 about Pearson for allegedly demonstrating inappropriate anger and using foul language, the board said.

Pearson was never formally suspended, but the board said Ballard and a physician aid committee pressured him to take time off and seek professional help and were under an obligation to report that to the state agency. Pearson left the hospital the day after being told to seek help and never returned, according to the board.