From the Oregon Medical Board, April 16, 2018
The Oregon Medical Board posts a monthly list of physicians and other medical professionals who have been disciplined by the board, largely for harming patients. Many of the physicians appear to have harmed patients who sought help for mental illness and addiction. Here are a few from April 2018
Dr. Enrique Abreu, Board Certified Anesthesiologist
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On April 5, 2018, Licensee entered into a Stipulated Order with the Board for unprofessional or dishonorable conduct, and gross or repeated negligence. This Order reprimands Licensee; assesses a $10,000 civil penalty; places Licensee on probation for five years; requires Licensee to complete pre-approved courses on medical documentation and on professional boundaries and medical ethics; requires the presence of a medically trained chaperone for all clinical encounters with female patients over the age of 15; subjects Licensee’s practice to no-notice chart audits and office visits by the Board’s designee; restricts Licensee from treating patients with IV infusions for a mental health condition without a psychiatrist referral; and restricts Licensee from treating patients with oral anti-depressant medications.
Dr. Abreu is the Medical Director of the Portland Ketamine Clinic.
Dr. Michael Cha
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On April 5, 2018, Licensee entered into a Stipulated Order with the Board for unprofessional
or dishonorable conduct; gross or repeated acts of negligence; and willfully violating any
Board rule or order.
Michael Cha, MD; MD23044; Sandy, OR
On April 18, 2017, Licensee entered into an Interim Stipulated Order to voluntarily cease
initiating or maintaining psychotropic medications for patients under age 18; cease initiating or
begin tapering opioids for chronic pain patients; limit prescribing for acute pain; taper concurrent
benzodiazepines; and cease prescribing concurrent muscle relaxants with opioids pending the
completion of the Board’s investigation into his ability to safely and competently practice
medicine.
Steven Riggs Foutz, MD; MD17523; Grants Pass, OR
On April 5, 2018, Licensee entered into a Stipulated Order with the Board for unprofessional
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or dishonorable conduct, and willfully violating any Board rule or order. With this Order
Licensee surrenders his medical license while under investigation.
Steven Riggs Foutz, MD; MD17523; Grants Pass, OR
On February 9, 2015, Licensee entered into an Interim Stipulated Order to voluntarily cease
treating chronic pain with DEA scheduled medications pending the completion of the Board’s
investigation into his ability to safely and competently practice medicine.
Foutz has apparently closed his practice in Grants Pass. His name has been scrubbed from the Asante Three Rivers Medical Center website.
Richard Joseph Mead, MD; MD11683; Salem, OR
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On April 5, 2018, Licensee entered into a Stipulated Order with the Board for unprofessional
or dishonorable conduct, and gross or repeated acts of negligence. With this Order Licensee
retires his medical license while under investigation, effective August 1, 2018.
Richard Joseph Mead, MD; MD11683; Salem, OR
On February 15, 2018, Licensee entered into an Interim Stipulated Order to voluntarily withdraw
from practice and place his license in Inactive status pending the completion of the Board’s
investigation into his ability to safely and competently practice medicine.
Richard Joseph Mead, MD; MD11683; Salem, OR
The Board issued an Order Terminating Stipulated Order on October 16, 2008. This Order
terminates Licensee’s January 15, 2004 Stipulated Order.
Dr. Mead has been a psychiatrist and worked at the Oregon State Hospital. He’s had many reviews by the Oregon Medical Board which affected his license, including this one from 1995. Dr. Mead was named in a 2011 lawsuit against the Oregon State Hospital.
There are several Doctors that are a danger to well-being of the Oregon People commited to the jurisdiction of the State Institution here in Salem! This place is not a hospital! It is a looney bin for the educated insane to practice psychiatry or pretend to work in recovery! Oregon’s True Blue Animal House. Both sides of the fence Staff and patients!
Your post is sadly misinformed about the Oregon Medical Board’s monthly “Board Action Report”. This list includes both disciplinary and non-disciplinary (administrative) public orders issued by the Oregon Medical Board (OMB). No patient harm (actual or even alleged) needs to occur in order to be listed and publicly shamed by this report. The list includes physicians and other medical professionals whose sole infraction is having sought out help for mental illness or addiction. The OMB, like many (but not all) state medical licensing boards, reflexively and publicly sanctions physicians (like me) who disclose any personal history of any mental illness. No patient harm, misconduct, or professional incompetence is required for the OMB to decimate a physician’s career and livelihood by naming them on this list. Only a DSM diagnosis is needed. For quite a number of licensees, being named on this list simply provides one more shocking example of the crippling stigma caused by irrational prejudice against persons with mental illness. The OMB claims to be merely “protecting the public” from “bad doctors” by listing as many names as possible on their monthly “Board Action Reports” — regardless of terrible cost and/or unjust consequences to many GOOD doctors and their patients.
Of course the post is just a reposting of text from the OMB. Your dispute is with them. If you are a physician with a mental illness who has been sanctioned because of your illness and not your actions, let us know and we’ll provide support for you.
Until then, the history of physicians and licensed clinical professionals is rife with denial of illness, discrimination against patients and peers who are ill, malpractice, and promotion of pharmaceutical and therapeutic quackery. Sanctions protect patients. You don’t get reconciliation – or justice – without truth first. So talk with your colleagues about ceasing harm to people with mental illness and addiction. It is arrogant to post that your livelihood outweighs our lives.