A federal district court in the middle district of Pennsylvania denied a motion to dismiss and ADA claim by an opiate dependent nurse who was clean but participating in a methadone program to avoid relapse. The Methadone program required frequent opioid testing to insure compliance with the program. The Pennsylvania Board of Nursing had a secret policy prohibiting the licensing of any nurse on Methadone.
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Dr. Savitra Bhama, a psychiatrist born in the former West Pakistan in 1934 has a license to practice medicine in Michigan and Kentucky. She applied for a license to practice in the State of Ohio. In the questionnaire that the State Medical Board of Ohio required to be submitted along with her application she was asked whether she had ever been terminated or resigned from a position she held or was ever asked to resign. She answered “no” to the question after interpreting the question in the context of her perception of the interests of the board to mean termination or resignation related to the actions related to patient care. The literal answer to the question was “yes.” Dr. Bhama argued that she had no intent to deceive the board and cited as evidence the fact that she disclosed her complete employment history and given the number of positions the board would have known that she terminated or was terminated from several positions. The Ohio board determined that her answer constituted a false, fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading statement” in order to secure a license and denied her application.
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In Nelson v. State of Montana, No. 05-694, the Montana Supreme Court fractured over the liability of the Montana Board of Medical Examiners for negligent licensing of Dr. Thomas Stephenson, but the majority excused the board from culpability. In November of 1999, Dr. Stephenson conducted a routine physical examination of Emil J.(Jack) Nelson. He noted that Jack possibly had an abdominal aneurysm. He stated in the chart that Jack would return the following week for an X-ray. Jack’s aneurysm ruptured several days later and Jack died. Mrs. Nelson brought this claim against the Board of Medical Examiners for negligent licensing of Dr. Stephenson.
Dr. Stephenson had some problems. As described in dissent by Justice Nelson (presumably no relation to Jack),
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