Macheret v. State Medical Board

935 N.E.2d 918, 188 Ohio App. 3d 469
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 27, 2010
DocketNo. 09AP-849
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 935 N.E.2d 918 (Macheret v. State Medical Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Macheret v. State Medical Board, 935 N.E.2d 918, 188 Ohio App. 3d 469 (Ohio Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

Klatt, Judge.

{¶ 1} Appellant, Leonid Macheret, appeals from a judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas affirming the decision of appellee, the State Medical Board of Ohio, to suspend Macheret’s certificate to practice medicine and surgery for an indefinite period, but not less than one year. For the following reasons, we affirm.

{¶ 2} On August 9, 2007, the board sent Macheret a notice of its intent to determine whether to take disciplinary action against him. The notice alleged that Macheret had engaged in sexual contact with Patient l1 without first terminating the physician-patient relationship. Additionally, the notice alleged that Macheret had falsely stated in his deposition and in responses to interrogatories that he had terminated the physician-patient relationship before engaging in sexual contact with Patient 1. According to the notice, Macheret’s conduct constituted: (1) “[m]aking a false, fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading statement * * * in relation to the practice of medicine and surgery” in violation of R.C. 4731.22(B)(5), (2) “[a] departure from, or the failure to conform to, minimal standards of care of similar practitioners under the same or similar circumstances” in violation of R.C. 4731.22(B)(6), (3) a “violation of any provision of a code of ethics of the American medical association” in violation of R.C. 4731.22(B)(18), and (4) a “[fjailure to cooperate in an investigation conducted by the board * * *, including * * * failure to answer truthfully a question presented by the board at a deposition or in written interrogatories” in violation of R.C. 4731.22(B)(34).

{¶ 3} Macheret requested a hearing. During the two-day hearing, Patient 1 testified that she had sought treatment from Macheret for her insomnia, fatigue, and lower back pain. Macheret diagnosed Patient 1 with intermittent hypoglycemia, multiple food allergies and food sensitivities, and intestinal candida. To treat those conditions, Macheret prescribed a regimen of supplements and IV [472]*472injections containing vitamins and minerals. From December 1999 through July 2000, Patient 1 visited Machex-et’s office approximately every other week to receive the IV injections.

{¶ 4} Patient 1 fell in love with Macheret, and she confessed her feelings to him in late June 2000. Following this revelation, Patient 1 and Macheret met for coffee at a café. According to Macheret, during this meeting, he told Patient 1 that “[s]he was starting to come too close” to him and that he could no longer be her physician. Macheret claimed that Patient 1 asked him to continue treating her for one month to give her time to find another physician. Patient 1 denied that this conversation ever occurred.

{¶ 5} Throughout July 2000, Patient 1 attended her regularly scheduled appointments with Macheret. After the July 26, 2000 appointment, Patient 1 and Macheret met at Macheret’s house, and Patient 1 cooked him dinner. Later that night, Patient 1 and Macheret had sexual intercourse.

{¶ 6} On August 1, 2000, Patient 1 visited Macheret’s office without an appointment. She received an IV injection and met with Macheret in an examining room.

{¶ 7} When Patient 1 and Macheret talked in subsequent telephone calls, Macheret was curt and distant. Patient 1 asked to him to meet with her, but he put off seeing her. Hurt by Macheret’s apparent disinterest in her, Patient 1 called him and told him that she did not want to see him again.

{¶ 8} Despite Patient l’s resolve to end her relationship with Macheret, she saw him one last time. Patient 1 injured her back while exercising, and she recalled that Macheret had treated a prior back injury with an injection that had immediately relieved her pain. Patient 1 made an appointment with Macheret, and he gave her a spinal injection.

{¶ 9} Wracked with guilt, Patient 1 soon thereafter told her husband about her sexual encounter with Macheret. Patient l’s husband reported Macheret’s conduct to the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine, which referred the matter to the board. During the board’s subsequent investigation, Macheret answered interrogatories and gave a deposition. In both, Macheret admitted that he and Patient 1 had engaged in sexual intercourse. Macheret, however, asserted that he had terminated the physician-patient relationship orally and in writing prior to having sex with Patient 1. At the hearing, Patient 1 disputed Macheret’s assextion. She testified that Macheret had never told her that he could no longer be her physician and that she had never received anything in writing that indicated that Macheret wanted to end the physician-patient relationship. According to Patient 1, she — not Macheret — terminated their physician-patient relationship.

[473]*473{¶ 10} To support his version of the facts, Macheret called Cindy S. Hemme, his former medical assistant, to testify. Hemme recalled mailing Patient 1 two letters in which Macheret instructed Patient 1 to seek a new physician. Hemme said that she sent those letters in September or October 2000. However, Macheret’s medical records for Patient 1 did not contain copies of either letter.

{¶ 11} In his report and recommendation, the hearing examiner found that Macheret was not credible when he testified that he had severed the physician-patient relationship prior to having sex with Patient 1. The hearing examiner believed, instead, Patient l’s testimony about the events surrounding the sexual encounter. Consequently, the hearing examiner concluded that Macheret had engaged in the conduct alleged in the notice of intent and that discipline was warranted under R.C. 4731.22(B)(5), (6), (18), and (34). The hearing examiner recommended that the board (1) permanently revoke Macheret’s certificate to practice, but stay the revocation, and (2) suspend Macheret’s certificate for an indefinite period, but not less than 180 days.

{¶ 12} At the December 10, 2008 board meeting, the board considered the hearing examiner’s report and recommendation. After hearing from Macheret and discussing the matter, the board amended the 180-day suspension period recommended by the hearing examiner to a minimum period of one year. In all other respects, the board approved and confirmed the hearing examiner’s report.

{¶ 13} Macheret appealed the board’s order to'the trial court. On September 2, 2009, the trial court issued a judgment affirming the board’s order. Macheret now appeals to this court, and he assigns the following errors:

[1.] The Common Pleas Court erred in upholding the Medical Board Order, which was based on the Board’s conclusions as to violations for which Dr. Macheret was not given notice or the right to a hearing.
[2.] The Medical Board’s disciplinary guidelines did not limit the Medical Board’s ability to suspend Dr. Macheret’s medical license for less than one year.
[3.] The Medical Board cannot discipline Dr. Macheret for failing to terminate the physician-patient relationship in writing in 2000, when the rule requiring written termination did not take effect until 2006.

{¶ 14} Pursuant to R.C. 119.12, when a trial court reviews an order of an administrative agency, it must consider the entire record to determine whether the agency’s order is supported by reliable, probative, and substantial evidence and is in accordance with law.

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Bluebook (online)
935 N.E.2d 918, 188 Ohio App. 3d 469, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/macheret-v-state-medical-board-ohioctapp-2010.