SMC says search for doctors ongoing

The revocation of Dr. Joyce W. Buckley's medical license Sept. 23 has prompted Samaritan Medical Center's Physician Development Committee to identify the need for one obstetrician/gynecologist.

Dr. Buckley, a gynecologist who may no longer practice medicine in New York, was one of five community ob/gyns in private practice who had privileges at the Watertown hospital.

There are now four: Dr. Nanci L. Hawkins, Dr. Walter Dodard, Dr. E. Darryl Barnes and Dr. Elliott S. Cohen.

Dr. Buckley was a partner with Dr. Cohen with New Concepts Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The hospital also has four active-duty military ob/gyns on its medical staff who serve the area's military population.

Samaritan spokeswoman Krista A. Kittle wrote in a statement that Drs. Buckley and Cohen were recruited to the hospital at the same time to practice together, but the loss of Dr. Buckley will not affect Dr. Cohen's status.

"Dr. Cohen has indicated that he is staying at Samaritan Medical Center to continue to provide ob/gyn services to our community," Ms. Kittle wrote.

Although SMC's Physician Development Committee identified the need for an ob/gyn, the recruitment and retention of ob/gyn's and many other specialty doctors has been an ongoing priority of the hospital.

Ms. Kittle said in late September that, for close to a year, active recruitment efforts have been under way to bring additional ob/gyn providers to the Watertown hospital.

Dr. Hawkins, obstetrician/gynecologist who opened Wise Woman Ob/Gyn at 172 Clinton St., said although the community has lost one gynecologist, there are many other fields that need physicians.

"Our entire community has had trouble getting doctors here to stay," she said. "There's nothing unusual about Watertown. There's a pressure to pay back debt. People come to under-served areas and move on."

Dr. Hawkins said she thinks people don't realize the availability schedule in obstetrics.

"The doctors are on call here every day, at least for civilian providers," she said.

SAMARITAN BLINDSIDED

Dr. Buckley was appointed to the Samaritan medical staff in 2004, along with Dr. Cohen, with whom she still has a practice in Ottawa, Ontario.

According to the Ottawa practice's voice recording, Drs. Cohen and Buckley are there only once a month.

Dr. Buckley's four years of practicing gynecology with her limited license in the Watertown area ended two weeks ago when a Department of Health hearing committee decided her license should be revoked.

Having authorized 75,000 prescriptions through an Internet pharmacy, the committee found her guilty of gross negligence, practicing the profession beyond the authorized scope of Samaritan Medical Center, failure to maintain accurate patient records and failure to make requested documents available to the Department of Health.

Because Dr. Buckley made a profit of $150,000 from the prescriptions, which were issued "on or about 2005 through 2007," according to the committee report, she is required to pay a $40,000 civil penalty.

Her departure from the north country's ob/gyn community was abrupt. Samaritan Medical Center hadn't known about the state Health Department's decision to revoke Dr. Buckley's license until media reports surfaced the weekend of Sept. 20 and 21, according to Ms. Kittle.

Samaritan had been blindsided by the decision despite Dr. Buckley's name surfacing in March media reports from Kansas.

Dr. Buckley was mentioned in a March 13 Hutchinson (Kan.) News story because she was named as the physician who authorized the prescription drugs to individuals through Hogan's Pharmacy, Lyons, Kan., in an emergency order issued by the Kansas State Board of Pharmacy.

The pharmacy was investigated when complaints surfaced that individuals were receiving prescription drugs after filling out an online survey or questionnaire.

Dr. Buckley was the only physician mentioned in the main body text of the Kansas state report as authorizing the prescriptions.

In fact, the Kansas State Board of Pharmacy report stated that Amber Boyd, a former pharmacy technician at Hogan's Pharmacy, would deny hundreds of prescriptions that had been approved by Dr. Buckley.

PILLS LINKED TO DEATH

A Valley Center, Kan., woman, who asked to remain anonymous, claimed the Soma pills her husband received through Hogan's pharmacy ultimately led to his death.

The coroner's report listed the cause of death as a mixed drug intoxication, according to the state Board of Pharmacy report.

The widow said her husband had taken several Soma pills before bed.

"I'm so happy things are rolling with this," the widow told the Times in a telephone interview in late September. "This needs to stop. We were only married for eight months when my husband died."

The husband used an Internet pharmacy to receive Soma pills, which he used for back pain following a motor vehicle accident.

Although it helped him sleep, the widow said, he became addicted and relied on an Internet pharmacy to process his orders to Hogan's pharmacy.

"I remember walking upstairs and seeing him the way I did," she said. "I can remember the greenish color."

The widow said she will do what it takes to help stop prescription drugs being distributed without patients being seen by a doctor.