Butt v. Iowa Bd. of Med. — Oct. 2015 (Summary)

DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR/STATE BOARD SANCTIONS

Butt v. Iowa Bd. of Med.
No. 14-1764 (Iowa Ct. App. Oct. 28, 2015)

The Court of Appeals of Iowa affirmed sanctions imposed by the Iowa Board of Medicine (“Board”) on a physician for his inappropriate conduct but remanded to the lower court for an order directing the Board to strike certain parts of its decision and to amend its National Practitioner Data Bank (“NPDB”) report on the physician.

The Board sanctioned the physician after it found that the physician engaged in unethical and unprofessional conduct when he threatened a nurse by telling her he would “crush her” and when he asked an employee if she would leave her husband to have his baby. The physician appealed the Board’s sanctions and findings and the Court of Appeals reversed certain of those findings and remanded to the Board “to determine the propriety of the discipline imposed.” On remand, the Board added that it “believe[d] that such conduct interferes with, or has the potential to interfere with, patient care and/or the effective functioning of health care staff.” The Board then decided to reinstitute the prior sanctions, which the physician again appealed. Ultimately, the Court of Appeals held the Board’s statement with regard to patient care was a new finding of fact and not supported by the evidence, reversed the Board’s decision, and remanded to the district court for an order directing the Board to strike the sentence. The Court of Appeals also took issue with the Board’s decision to answer “Yes” to the following NPDB question regarding the physician: “Is the Adverse Action Specified in this Report Based on the Subject’s Professional Competence or Conduct, Which Adversely, or Could Have Adversely Affected, the Health or Welfare of the Patient?” According to the court, there was no evidentiary support for the “Yes” answer. The Court of Appeals remanded to the district court with instructions to the Board to amend the answer to “No.”