George Tiller’s Wichita abortion practice ended with his murder. Pro-choice Gov. Kathleen Sebelius went to Washington, D.C., leaving a pro-choice successor with no plans to run for the job. Kansas’ likely next governor is Sam Brownback, perhaps the most anti-abortion member of the U.S. Senate. So it was curious to see the reaction of Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, to last week’s resignation of Jack Confer as executive director of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts: “Jack Confer was our last hope against the complete and total corruption of this state by abortion forces,” Culp told the Topeka Capital-Journal, “and with his resignation, no matter what the reason, that hope is dashed.” Whatever drove Confer’s decision, the board seemingly has yet to find its footing after its 2008 overhaul by the Legislature. Kansans need a health care regulatory authority that is professional, apolitical and stable.
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38 Comments
Any wonder that Confer resigned. The board really lacks a mission now that they don’t have Tiller to protect. Hopefully Sam will finish cleaning house and maybe the board can get back to what it was created to do.
“Kansans need a health care regulatory authority that is professional, apolitical and stable.”
___________________________________________
Well, good luck with that!
The ‘professional’ members of the board are appointed by the governor. Recomendations are made to the governor by the various professional organizations such as the KMS and KCA.
The ’stability’ is provided by the staff of attorneys and investigators that are not appointed but are state employees. The staff has quite a bit of independance to investigate and charge but the ultimate decisions on disciplinary action is made by the political appointees.
When Larry Buening and Mark Stafford resigned last year and the new rules were established there was a good chance for improvement. I really didn’t see much improvement under Confer, however.
The board is a political animal. The director is a political animal. I believe Mary Kay Culp has placed too much hope in the process.
Thanks again Rhonda. Your Dictatorship form of writing and Mentality is a prime example of why people need to educate themselves. You refuse to look at the election process and acknowledge the other candidate. I am pretty sure he is Herbert West III. Click on the above name and read the views posted there on Abortion and other resident/voter rights. Thanks again, its called an election, not a buddy briefing!!!!!!
Just ban chiro-quackery in Kansas and there’s no need for half the staff of the Board of Healing Arts.
Just the facts:
Chapter 65.–Public Health
Article 28.–Healing Arts
65-2801. Purpose. Recognizing that the practice of the healing arts is a privilege granted by legislative authority and is not a natural right of individuals, it is deemed necessary as a matter of policy in the interests of public health, safety and welfare, to provide laws and provisions covering the granting of that privilege and its subsequent use, control and regulation to the end that the public shall be properly protected against unprofessional, improper, unauthorized and unqualified practice of the healing arts and from unprofessional conduct by persons licensed to practice under this act.
65-2812. State board of healing arts; membership; appointment. For the purpose of administering the provisions of this act, the governor shall appoint a state board of healing arts consisting of 15 members. At least 30 days before the expiration of any term, other than that of the member appointed from the general public and the licensed podiatrist member of the board, the professional society or association shall submit to the governor a list of three or more names of persons of recognized ability who have the qualifications prescribed for board members for each member of the board who will be appointed from its branch of the healing arts. The governor shall consider the list of persons in making the appointment to the board. In case of a vacancy on the board, other than that of the member appointed from the general public and the licensed podiatrist member of the board, prior to the expiration of a term of office, the governor shall appoint a qualified successor to fill the unexpired term, and in making the appointment the governor shall give consideration to the list of persons last submitted to the governor.
65-2813. State board of healing arts; qualifications of members. Five members of the board shall hold a degree of doctor of medicine from an accredited medical school and shall be residents of and have been actively engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in the state of Kansas under license issued in this state, for a period of at least six consecutive years immediately preceding their appointment; three members shall hold a degree of doctor of osteopathy from an accredited school of osteopathic medicine and surgery and shall be residents of and have been actively engaged in the practice of osteopathic medicine and surgery in the state of Kansas under license issued in this state, for a period of at least six consecutive years immediately preceding their appointment; three members shall hold a degree of doctor of chiropractic from an accredited school of chiropractic and shall be residents of and have been actively engaged in the practice of chiropractic in the state of Kansas under license issued in this state, for a period of at least six consecutive years immediately preceding their appointment; one member shall be a licensed podiatrist and shall be a resident of and have been actively engaged in the practice of podiatry in the state of Kansas under license issued in this state for a period of at least six consecutive years immediately preceding appointment; and three members shall be appointed to represent the general public of this state. Subject to the provisions of K.S.A. 1992 Supp. 75-4315c, no two of the members representing the general public shall be from the same United States congressional district. No member representing the general public shall be the spouse of a licensee of the healing arts or a person or the spouse of a person who has a financial interest in any person’s practice of the healing arts.
http://www.ksbha.org/statutes.html#HA
Mission Statement
To protect the public by authorizing only those persons who meet and maintain certain qualifications to engage in the health care professions regulated by this Board. Also, to utilize the least restrictive yet effective means to protect the public from incompetence, unprofessional conduct or other proscribed practice by persons who have been granted authority to practice in this State and from unauthorized practice by persons and entities who have not been granted authority to practice in this State.
http://www.ksbha.org/mission.html
Chiro-quackery is not a “healing” art.
It’s snake-oil.
And highly lucrative so its perpetrators can buy legislators.
If a chiro-quack could actually heal you, “Regular,” you could get off government disability and back in the work force.
Monkeyhawk
Posted October 25, 2009 at 8:33 am | Permalink
Chiro-quackery is not a “healing” art.
It’s snake-oil.
And highly lucrative so its perpetrators can buy legislators.
If a chiro-quack could actually heal you, “Regular,” you could get off government disability and back in the work force.
——————-
Qualified practices are determined by the states, not opinions from uneducated dolts like yourself MonkeyHawk.
A chiropractor would not help me, because my damage is neural and permanent in the spine, nothing to do processes that can regenerate and addressed by that particular discipline. Pain control perhaps, dunno – haven’t accessed those options.
By Tim Carpenter
Created October 10, 2009 at 10:08pm
Updated October 11, 2009 at 1:06am
A state administrative hearing officer determined a Johnson County psychiatrist was guilty of all 23 allegations of unethical conduct leveled against him by former colleagues and patients, state documents say.
Douglas Geenens, who received medical training at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, prompted an evidentiary hearing in the case by fighting charges filed by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts. Allegations are tied to complaints that Geenens issued prescriptions to patients not directly under his care, engaged in a sexual relationship with a female patient, made false statements about medical professionals and committed other breaches of professional ethics dating to the 1990s.
The hearing officer’s report obtained through a Kansas Open Records Act request indicated Geenens encouraged a patient to leave her husband and then conducted an overnight therapy session with her after she followed his advice. In 2007, Geenens married a former patient in violation of national ethical standards.
Geenens was among four Kansas-licensed doctors profiled in a series of stories published by The Topeka Capital-Journal in 2008. Each doctor had sparked regulatory challenges for the Board of Healing Arts, which is responsible for policing more than 20,000 health professionals in Kansas. The Legislature responded by passing reform bills aimed at improving oversight by the Board of Healing Arts.
Hearing officer Edward Gaschler gathered testimony in the Geenens case before recommending in his written order that Geenens pay the cost of a multiyear state investigation into his behavior and that he be publicly censured by the agency for his actions. Geenens has been licensed in Kansas for 20 years, and his current license is valid through September 2010.
In his order, Gaschler left open the possibility more serious sanctions could be approved by the 15 members of the Board of Healing Arts. The Geenens case is expected to be on the board’s agenda in December.
“The presiding officer does not accept the licensee’s minimization of his practice of medicine and the violations,” Gaschler said. “These certainly are serious matters. These patients did not receive the applicable level of care that they were entitled.”
In proceedings with the Board of Healing Arts, Geenens denied the majority of allegations against him. He couldn’t be reached to discuss Gaschler’s report. Karen Virgillito, Geenens’ Overland Park attorney, didn’t return a message for comment.
Board of Healing Arts attorney Jeff Heinrich urged Gaschler to recommend revocation of Geenens’ license to practice in Kansas.
In 2004, the Board of Healing Arts suspended Geenens’ license for one week and had him attend short courses in medical records management and appreciation of professional boundaries with patients.
A portion of the complaints against Geenens were submitted by psychiatrist Rory Murphy, who had a business partnership with Geenens offering treatment to children and adults struggling with life’s twists and turns. Murphy bought Geenens’ share of their practice in 2001.
In 2004, Murphy approached healing arts investigators in Missouri and Kansas about Geenens’ conduct. Murphy submitted a formal complaint in Kansas in 2007. Geenens was publicly reprimanded by Missouri regulators and, to escape broader discipline, agreed to “retire” his license in that state two years ago.
Murphy said Geenens wrote prescriptions for patients he hadn’t seen in years. Murphy questioned the quality of care received by Geenens’ patients, including a person who committed suicide in 2002. Geenens had telephone service cut to Murphy’s office without warning in 2001, potentially depriving patients of emergency services. Murphy said Geenens conducted a smear campaign against him and psychologist Andrew Jacobs, whose wife was among Geenens’ patients in 2003 before she divorced Jacobs and married Geenens.
Interests of the public demand Geenens’ license be pulled by the Board of Healing Arts, Murphy said.
“What reason do we have to believe that he won’t continue the same type of misconduct?” Murphy said. “Where is the justice for the people he has harmed?”
Tim Carpenter can be reached at (785) 296-3005 or timothy.carpenter@cjonline.com.
By The Capital-Journal Editorial Board
October 14, 2009 – 11:20am
A cry went up last year for sweeping reforms associated with the state Board of Healing Arts, and with good reason.
In the spring of 2008, The Topeka Capital-Journal exposed a number of alarming problems within the regulatory body. In an investigative series, the newspaper spotlighted a number of situations that were equal parts heartbreaking and infuriating, including one case in which board attorneys stood idle for more than a year until federal prosecutors indicted a Haysville physician in connection with at least 15 deaths.
To their credit, Kansas legislators demanded reforms such as greater transparency and more aggressive investigation of complaints from medical consumers.
The head of the board and its general counsel resigned.
Lawmakers increased the board’s budget, which allowed it to add seven new staff positions.
The board made a quick turnaround.
The number of board actions on complaints doubled from 47 in 2007 to 98 in 2008, and the backlog of open cases was greatly reduced.
In another positive move, an expedited suspension process was put into place.
All seemed to be going well until last weekend, when The Capital-Journal published an update on one of the cases the newspaper had highlighted in its 2008 series.
That case involved Douglas Geenens, a Johnson County psychiatrist who had drawn complaints that he issued prescriptions to patients who weren’t directly under his care, engaged in a sexual relationship with a female patient, made false statements about medical professionals and committed other breaches of professional ethics dating to the 1990s.
The good news from the update was that a state administrative hearing officer had determined Geenens was guilty of all 23 allegations of unethical conduct lodged against him by former patients and colleagues.
The bad news from the story, which was based on a document obtained through the Kansas Open Records Act, was the hearing officer’s recommendation on Geenen’s “punishment.”
The quote marks are no accident.
That’s because the recommendation was for Geenens to be ordered to reimburse the cost of the investigation into his actions and receive a public censure from the board.
Huh?
The part about paying for the investigation is well and good, but a public censure? That’s one of the lightest sanctions on the books.
What’s worse, it goes against a recommendation from a Board of Healing Arts attorney, who believes Geenens’ medical license should be revoked.
The attorney is right.
It would be one thing if the doctor had been found in violation of a couple of minor allegations.
But that wasn’t the situation, as Kansans are now well aware.
Instead, the case against Geenens was a slam-dunk.
Fortunately, the hearing officer’s recommendation isn’t the final word in the case.
That belongs to the 15-member board, which is scheduled to consider Geenens’ case in December. The hearing officer left open the possibility that the board could impose harsher sanctions.
The board should do exactly that.
Before the situation boiled over last year, a history of wrist-slap sanctions had helped cripple the board’s credibility and erode the trust between Kansans and regulators who were supposed to protect them from unscrupulous or unqualified medical practitioners. A national advocacy group had ranked the board 36th among states in terms of sanctioning problem doctors.
A slap on the wrist in the Geenens case would be a setback in the strides the board has made since The Capital-Journal’s series highlighted its many shortcomings.
In December, board members have a chance to prove it heard the cries for more stringent oversight.
Kansans will be watching.
Why in Kansas is everything related to “heathcare” really just about abortion.
I’m about sick of it from both sides:
Republicans making it the central banner on their campaign bandwagon: Democrats making opposition the equally disgusting priority.
I believe we have a few more important issues in this state to discuss before Sam gets hands on the reigns.
I think both sides should bring up OTHER ISSUES of substance to be discussed in the upcoming campaigns.
Not just abortion again. It seems the future of Kansas hinges on the abortion practise of a deceased abortionist or educating our children on the merits of evolution and creation.
Phil Kline is gone. Let’s keep him and his kind out of the public, except to announce their criminal prosecution, which is a matter of public record.
This board needs some serious changes made. Perhaps it is time to look a the board members themselves to find out why they have a problem with making the right decisions on some of these cases.
The one I point out above is just a small sample of the BS going on with this board.
Even Missouri saw this doctor as not fit to practice but Kansas thinks he should get a slap on the wrist and continue?
Hopefully the legislature will take a look at the board itself and find out what is going on. Kansans should not have to be afraid of their doctor.
“Regular” admits –
“A chiropractor would not help me….”
Yeah.
Nor anyone.
You could get just as adequate “care” from any massage parlor on the outskirts of town.
Tip extra and you might get a “happy ending.”
But your health insurance won’t pay for it.
Do try and focus on the topic MonkeyHawk, instead of other posters.
The board was not designed to act as an extension of Operation Rescue, the board was supposed to be members of a group of doctors who monitor ILLEGAL activity. Abortion is legal. You should not maneuver to put on board members who will fulfill your agenda to demonize legally acting physicians.
Politico, I don’t know the case in which you are speaking, but I don’t know that the doctor’s acts require him to lose his license. This seems to be a first offense that the doctor is brought up on charges. One should not lose years of education and his lifes work for some actions that should be able to be corrected. And he shouldn’t be tried by people who don’t know the whole story.
Like yourself.
In reading further up on your message, it appears to me to be a fight between business partners. He spoke to an investigator in 2004 and didn’t file a formal complaint till 3 years later. That in itself is suspect.
Sorry Herb, Rhonda was speaking of people who have a chance in hades of winning. Is there even a person on this board who supports your effort?
I think it’s funny that a few decades ago abortion and sterilization were forced on a population in order to eliminate them. Now it’s “their right” to eliminate themselves.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/55956
Yeah, you “libs” are really aren’t the racists.
Eugenics. Better get to understanding what it is and know that it’s still here.
You got the biggest scam on Earth pulled on you. Along with abortion, now you all consider yourselves bad for the Earth.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21684156-5009760,00.html
Whatever.
Here’s one of our “greatest thinkers ever”…
read his bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Huxley
Ah well you just exposed yourself Pleef. The way to get out of poverty is to have more children? Really? Do you honestly believe that? Is that your argument? Or overpopulation is GOOD for the planet? WEll heck, if its bad for one country (China), why on earth would it be bad for the world?
Abortion isn’t about exterminating a race or depopulating the entire planet. Although I DO believe that we are an overpopulated planet. Our resources can’t keep up with our demand, that is evident in nearly every natural resource.
But that isn’t it-its about ONE woman’s choice that is right for her. Why are a disproportionate amount of black women in poverty and seeking abortions? If you fix the cause-poverty, you’ll fix most of the abortion issue- for any race. And throwing babies into the mix only makes it WORSE.
I’ve “exposed myself” eh?
One of the ways to get out of poverty is keeping a family together. And “your side” wants to destroy the idea of family. In the name of “women’s rights”, you take the mother out of the home, leaving the government to raise the kids. Keeping welfare and drug dealing as the main source of income for most of the minorities is a sure fire way of NEVER getting out of poverty but more than likely, just keep filling up the prisons. NAFTA (championed by Clinton/Gore and Bush/Bush) helps to get rid of our production capability and thus eliminates most of our reasonably high paying jobs.
You folks have never been right about anything, ever. Neither left nor right.
So, if I have “exposed myself” (whatever the He11 that means) so be it. You folks have destroyed our country and that is quite an exposure in and of itself. Although, you’ll never admit that you are wrong on anything, that’s easy to see.
I don’t care about abortion or those that get them. It’s a non-issue to me. If you don’t want the thing, get rid of it, it is you right. But you have ZERO clue when it comes to the history of “Planned Parenthood”, Margaret Sanger and the “abortion rights” beginnings.
http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/
Monk,
Please don’t disparage chiropractors. One of these days the Kansas anti’s may kill their way to a temporary victory and chiropractors will revert to what they did best; provide abortions for those in need. In the bad old pre-Roe days, chiropractors at least sterilized their instruments before performing abortions, which put them far ahead of some of the others in the business.
Okay Pleefer…I read the preview to that book and find it very interesting. I am sure there is some truth in that history, but it is taken to the point of paranoid ridiculousness. I might have to read it.
The fact is, it is harder for a women to get a tubal ligation these days than in previous years. I think it is still fairly easy for a man to get a vasectomy because it is out patient, but almost impossible for anyone under 30 or if you have never had children. But you sure can’t get any of it done at a Catholic hospital and Kansas is full of them.
I think it needs to be more available and maybe even government subsidized to people who have had 2 children and don’t want any more kids. It would drastically decrease the number of abortions, decrease the debate on birth control pill (apparently it is now considered abortion by pro-lifers) and may give low income women the edge they need to pull themselves out of poverty.
politicalmama,
I’ll vote for Herb before I’ll vote for Brownback.
The candidate I’d like to see run for Governor has thus far repeatedly denied having any interest in running for the post. I haven’t been able to determine yet whether he’s serious or just being coy about his intentions.
Jana,
Pleef apparently believes in the radioactively nuclear family with himself as exalted ruler and his queen kept as nothing more than a means of providing him with heirs, all of whom are expected to make do on whatever he deigns to provide. He needs to grow up.
I’ve got two kids and a vasectomy, Jed. I am a stay at home father. You don’t know me or anything about me. I’m speaking the facts that you folks find convenient to ignore. I understand the dilemma that facts put upon you all and I’m sorry about that. Truth hurts.
You all claim to be the champions of the downtrodden when all that you’re really doing is perpetuating the status quo.
Attacking the messenger doesn’t change a damned thing.
Obamatons.
A state administrative hearing officer determined a Johnson County psychiatrist was guilty of all 23 allegations of unethical conduct leveled against him by former colleagues and patients, state documents say.
________________________________________________
This is not one mistake. He has been found guilty of all 23 charges. Missouri forced him to give up his license. Kansas is dragging it’s feet once again.
This doctor is not the only case out there with similar problems for the board. They have a lot of backlog on cases and some pretty serious ones that have resulted in a slap on the wrist.
So pmom it is not my opinion it is the opinion of those that have have investigated the case.
You are so blind by your personal opinions that you cannot even read information and see what it really says. How closed minded can one person be?
I know Jed. Some people are incapable of seeing any lifestyle or believe system as being whole and viable other than their own. A complete ethnocentric and egocentric. There are lots of them posting in here.
He has a right to his opinions and we have a right to ours.
Pol,
There needs to be some national body of medical ethicists within the profession and outside of political influence (how that’s possible I don’t know, but a way is deserately needed) who has a final say as to who is licensed to practice medicine and who is not. The notion that a doctor who is unfit to practice in one state is qualified to set up shop in another is a victorian concept that has been outmoded for well over a century.
One of the issues that needs to be addressed is that of physicians who are being sued for malpractice enlisting as doctors in the military to avoid court judgements. Our service people, our sons and daughters, deserve better.
It has nothing to do with any ego or culture. It has to do with human nature.
A stay at home father. As much as I’d like to say I respect that, coming from you pleef I find that absolutely hypocritical. We are NOT perpetuating the status quo. You don’t get out of poverty by sitting at home. You work your a off and don’t have children until you’re STABLE. STABLE includes either working a decent job or being married and choosing to either stay home or work.
Its about lifting people to better themselves. And we’re not anti-family or anti-marriage. We’re PRO GOOD MARRIAGE or remaining single if they so wish. You seem to be the one all about getting power over women- what were you unable to keep yours? Did ya like to smack her? Darn those women being able to leave their abusers.
As soon as you surrender your ethical conceptions of what it means to be in the business of healing or governing the sooner you will be able to apply your values to this argument.
Until then, I suggest you expand your reading list.
I’ve been married to the same beautiful woman for 10 years, been with her for 16. But, I don’t need to nor will I waste the time to explain anything about myself to someone like you.
And yeah, we agree that we neither one, respect each other. But I’m not going to assume anything about you or your character, unlike what you afforded me.
You need to let it go, not all of us men are bad.
Pleef,
“Jed. I am a stay at home father.”
Yeah, sorry about the layoffs, but that’s Wichita.
“Yeah, sorry about the layoffs, but that’s Wichita.”-Jed
How about, “that’s the entire country”?
You seriously can’t be that out of synch with the rest of the world?
You fuchwits seem almost giddy about the layoffs.
Do you know that those jobs aren’t coming back?
Do you further know that the crime rate is going to skyrocket once the unemployment checks stop coming?
You can laugh at that all you want. But everyone on here knows that I’ve been correct in how this country’s economy is playing out. I spoke about this scenario 4 years ago, right here on this blog. Go back into the archives, read it. I’ve never changed my nic, I’m always “Pleefer”.
You small people don’t have a clue.
There are still more dangerous late-term abortionist quacks licensed in Kansas, who have committed their crimes in Kansas, collaborating with and abetting Tiller, a notorious, criminal abortionist quack like his father.
Without BOHA executive leadership willing to stand and protect desperate, often coerced mothers and their babies, their criminal exploitation and abuse will continue, although no more at Tiller’s horrifying abortion mill.
Legislators should have continued kicking out much more that just the previous executive director for refusing to protect the public.
Troyboy,
If I were you, I’d get my *ss outa Dodge before Roeder comes to trial. He’ll have some interesting testimony regarding you and Cheryl.