4 Licenses Revoked Since Law Took Effect

Since 1999, hospitals and other employers have been required by law to report suspended and fired respiratory therapists to the state Respiratory Care Board.

Those reports have resulted in four license revocations.

Last year, the board revoked the license of Tony Ray Hernandez after he was fired from Porterville Developmental Center for falsifying patient records.

He failed to perform the medical treatments that he said he had completed in the charts of 21 developmentally disabled people under his care, board documents show.

Shinitia T. Johnson’s license was revoked after she was caught falsifying time sheets and patient records that showed she had worked the same eight-hour shift at two Los Angeles-area hospitals 30 miles apart.

According to board documents, Johnson said in patients’ medical charts that she had administered respiratory treatments to patients at White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights and Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance at the same time.

John J. Butler lost his license after he was sentenced to three years’ probation by a San Joaquin Municipal Court judge for disturbing the peace. Butler was convicted for spitting in his clinical manager’s face at a drugstore on Feb. 14, 1999, according to board documents.

Anibal Rivera surrendered his license for having been caught driving under the influence four times in eight years. He also lied on his therapist’s license renewal application about the convictions, board records show.