From TheDailyPress.com

NEWPORT NEWS — A Virginia Beach doctor whose medical license was suspended last year after five patients in his care died is now teaching in Newport News. 

Rheumatologist Dr. Stephen Plotnick had his medical license suspended for 24 months in August 2008, and is teaching an anatomy and physiology course at Medical Careers Institute in Newport News, the School of Health Science at ECPI College of Technology.

Plotnick’s license was suspended after at least five of the patients he was treating for fibromyalgia died. The legal order between Plotnick and the Virginia Board of Medicine said Plotnick refilled prescriptions without examining patients and failed to insist, in some cases, on protections that are standard with the prescribed narcotics. 

The Virginia Board of Medicine’s findings also state that Plotnick let some patients “guide (their) own medication selection,” prescribing more than one drug and letting patients decide which to take and how much. In several cases, he kept prescribing the narcotics after patients, their families and other doctors complained that they were overmedicated or having problems with the medication, according to board documents.

If you want to read the full story click on the link above. Another bullet dodged. You’re welcome!

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