Thursday, March 4, 2010

Resolutions on Texas Medical Board reform and how State Representatives can participate constructively

Representative Geanie Morrison
Victoria, Texas


Dear Representative Morrison,

Thank you so much for seconding my resolution on Texas Medical Board reform.

Would you kindly tell me whom I should contact to serve on the Resolutions Committee for our county convention, if that would be possible?

I know that a precinct in Harris County also passed a Resolution about reforming the TMB, but have not yet received other feedback.

How might persons who are interested in TMB reform help their Representatives get appointed to serve on the House Committee on Public Health?

I appreciate your interest in medical board reform. I would like to meet with you in the District at your convenience to discuss some ways that the board should be reformed. It's quite simple, really, and should not require new legislation. Here are key points:

1. The House Committee on Public Health should exercise sufficient oversight. It has utterly failed.

2. Open government laws, Constitutional due process, and the Medical Practice Act should be respected and followed. They are not. The House Committee on Public Health should request Attorney General opinions as to the legality of medical board procedures. The Attorney General should be directed, if necessary, to enforce the law. There must be procedures that doctors can follow to insure that our rights are protected. All of this should receive the oversight of the doctor's personal elected Representative who should make the House Committee on Public Health fully aware of violations.

It should be clear that no new laws are needed to provide this oversight. That is how government is supposed to function, as you know.

3. As you know from my resolutions presented at the precinct convention, several doctors have conclusive evidence that Executive Director Mari Robinson has committed multiple state and federal crimes. We have observed this to be her pattern and practice. We have affidavit testimony and other evidence, including altered government documents, which we wish to present to the Travis County Grand Jury. We need to know the proper procedure.

Our presentation of evidence needs the oversight of the House Committee on Public Health.

4. Doctors presenting criminal evidence against Robinson need protection from retaliation.

5. The medical board must implement, as soon as possible, a voluntary procedure by which doctors (any Texas doctor) may review complaints against licensees as to their significance in the overall practice of medicine and the severity of an alleged violation of the Medical Practice Act. The board should streamline the way complaints are evaluated so that, again, as soon as possible, every Texas physician, as a condition for licensure, should review several complaints per year, unpaid, and receive Continuing Medical Education credit for his services. I recommend that the goal should be that a minimum of 10 primary care physicians would review each complaint for significance and potential for patient harm and that 5 physicians in the doctor's specialty should review each complaint as to whether a reasonable standard of care was followed, as well as potential for patient harm.

Every complaint should be evaluated for the opportunity to see if there is a process which, if changed, could improve the health of Texans.

I have evaluated newly published medical literature for many years for a Canadian medical school which feeds its results to Clinical Evidence.

Our work is sent out daily to clinicians all over the world. I have included a copy of the most recent update. As you can see, we rate every study as to its relevance to our discipline (I assume that all specialties are represented, but mine as you know, is primary care.) and newsworthiness to doctors in our discipline. I often notice that something, for example, in cardiology, might be big news for primary care physicians, but is hum-drum for cardiologists.

One of the benefits of participating in this international effort is that I am regularly notified of "Stellar Articles" which are both highly relevant and newsworthy. Having participated in such a worthwhile project for nearly 10 years makes me all the more ashamed of what the Texas Medical Board does to the people of Texas. I believe that the people of Texas have the opportunity to completely overhaul the medical board and cause it to become an agency which can show the country how a regulatory agency should behave. With a restructuring of priorities, we can make the "worst medical board in the country" of historical interest only.


Provided by the BMJ Evidence Centre, EvidenceUpdates service

Dear Dr. Pigott:

New articles: colleagues in your discipline have identified the following article(s) as being of interest:
Article Title Discipline Rele-
vance News-
worthiness
Development and validation of a case ascertainment tool for ankylosing spondylitis.
Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) Rheumatology 5 5
Long-term outcome and prognostic factors of juvenile dermatomyositis: A multinational, multicenter study of 490 patients.
Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) Rheumatology 6 6
Pediatrics (General) 6 6
Dermatology 6 5
Evidence for predictive validity of remission on long-term outcome in rheumatoid arthritis: A systematic review.
Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) Rheumatology 6 5
Effect of hemodialysis before transplant surgery on renal allograft function--a pair of randomized controlled trials.
Transplantation Nephrology 6 6
Adenoidectomy for recurrent or chronic nasal symptoms in children.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev Pediatrics (General) 6 5
Regular treatment with formoterol and an inhaled corticosteroid versus regular treatment with salmeterol and an inhaled corticosteroid for chronic asthma: serious adverse events.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev Respirology/Pulmonology 6 6

Just click on the title to review the abstract and/or PubMed record.

Best wishes from EvidenceUpdates

* Note: if you are unable to access your alert by clicking on the article link, please login directly to EvidenceUpdates at http://plus.mcmaster.ca/EvidenceUpdates/ and access the article under 'My Alerts' which is listed in the top panel of the EvidenceUpdates system. If you continue to experience difficulties, please contact us for further assistance.

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Here is an example of a notification that I have an article to rate:

morehlp@mcmaster.ca
to me

show details 7/7/09

Dear Dr. Pigott,

You have an article to rate for McMaster PLUS, PIER, EvidenceUpdates, and the Evidence-Based Journals:
Discipline: Internal Medicine and its subspecialties
Title: The benefits of statins in people without established cardiovascular disease but with cardiovascular risk factors: meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
Article ID: 28393

NEW!! NB: The rating form now includes a Conflict of Interest statement. Answering YES to the question on the rating form in MORE will automatically remove this article from your rater's inbox. A NO answer will permit you to proceed with your ratings. Click here* to be automatically signed into the MORE system. Rating instructions are included below.

The full text article you review is protected by copyright and is for your viewing purposes only. Please do not download or distribute copies to others in any format...

www.texasphoenix007.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com "Shirley Pigott"

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Response to passing resolutions on reform of the Texas Medical Board at the Texas

Well, these problems will get fixed in Texas as soon as I become the next medical director. If there is one Texas Medical Board member or staff attorney who was not put there because of a conflict of interest, I wouldn't know who it is.

When I'm medical director doctors won't practice law and lawyers won't practice medicine. We will have a failsafe mechanism to file all complaints.

Every complaint will be evaluated initially by volunteer physicians who obtain continuing medical education for their efforts. Eventually, every physician in the state will participate in reviewing complaints. Every complaint will eventually be reviewed by no less than 10 primary care physicians and 5 physicians in the doctor's specialty. Every complaint will initially be determined to be jurisdictional (ie, is the doctor licensed to practice medicine in Texas?) or non-jurisdictional. For complaints which are not jurisdictional to the medical board, this 15-person panel will decide where the jurisdiction lies.

Every complaint will require a probable cause affidavit by someone not affiliated with the medical board.

The function of the board members will be to guard the integrity of the process. They will work with the Texas House Committee on Public Health to bring similar reforms to other state healthcare licensing boards.

The most important thing for readers to help me do right now is to facilitate the momentum we have because of the primary elections we had yesterday, any runoff elections, and the general elections in November.

I need to know where else (Democratic or Republican; Victoria County precinct 33 or other precincts in Texas) these or similar resolutions were passed.

If you care about health care in Texas and voted in either party's primary, get on the Resolutions Committee for your county. The ONLY requirement by law for you to get on this committee is to have voted in the primary.

If you voted in your party's primary and anyone prohibits you from serving on the Resolutions Committee of your county, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Please also report this obstruction of justice to Rule of Law Radio and Alex Jones, both in Austin.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Resolution regarding the Texas Medical Board was accepted in Republican Party of Texas precinct conventions

Tonight, as I have done for the last 15 - 20 years, I attended my precinct convention after the polls closed in the Republican Party primary election. I presented the resolution below.

Things took a different twist this time, however.

Our Texas State Representative Geanie Morrison seconded.

Victoria Advocate reporter Gabe Semenza took notes as his photographer filmed my presentation.

Representative Morrison explained to the group that there were, indeed, problems which need to be addressed at the Texas Medical Board

Mr. Semenza refused to comment on my pointed questions as to the reasons his boss, Chris Cobler, has never examined my evidence of fraud and corruption at the Texas Medical Board after it suspended my medical license on March 24, 2009, shortly after 5 pm.

On March 25, 2009, Cobler, who will never be noted for his adherence to 'ethics in publishing', printed the slanderous press release sent to him by the medical board word for word.

A few days later, I asked him to review with me the DPS video which Mari Robinson, I believe, had altered in order to show me in an unfavorable light. Without so much as a break in his step, Cobler told me he couldn't be bothered with looking at my evidence of malfeasance at the board. When I questioned him why he had printed what the medical board told him, but would not hear my side of the story, as if it made sense, he said, "...the Texas Medical Board is a STATE agency."

Oh...I see....

The following resolution was accepted at various Republican Party precinct conventions across the state of Texas on March 2, 2010. It will now rise upward to various County conventions, and eventually be considered for inclusion in the State of Texas Republican Party Platform.

Resolution regarding the Texas Medical Board


Whereas, the Texas Medical Board has come under considerable public scrutiny in Texas and around the country, and

Whereas, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has filed a lawsuit against it because of its abuses and failures to protect the health of Texans, and

Whereas, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has recognized the Texas Medical Board as being 'the worst medical board in the nation' and being rife with constitutional violations of due process, corruption, and unethical conflicts of interest, and

Whereas, the Executive Branch, under which it operates, has failed to take appropriate action, and

Whereas, the Legislature has failed to execute sufficient oversight or provide legislative relief, and

Whereas, the possibility of Judicial relief is remote, and

Whereas, Constitutional Due Process and other freedoms we all hold dear are threatened if Texans do not intervene, and

Whereas, health care is too important to leave to politicians and lawyers who have no training or experience in healthcare,

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people of the Republican Party of Texas direct their elected officials to intervene in specific cases to ensure that physicians and other healthcare providers have their Constitutional Due Process rights protected, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people .... direct their elected officials to intervene in specific cases to guarantee that physicians with disabilities are given state and federal protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people .... direct their elected officials to demand that the Texas Medical Board shall comply fully with Open Government Laws, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people .... direct their elected officials to demand that all healthcare licensing agencies require their licensees to participate in continuing medical education such that every complaint about any licensee is evaluated as to its significance and whether a change of process might have prevented patient harm or improve the health of Texans, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people .... direct their elected officials to care less about giving or not giving "legal advice" and care more about stopping the abuses of the Texas Medical Board, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people.... condemn the Texas legislature for not conducting proper oversight of the Texas Medical Board, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people .... condemn the Texas Executive Branch for not enforcing constitutional due process at the Texas Medical Board, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people ... condemn the Texas Attorney General because of his refusal to render constitutional opinions enforcing open government laws at the TMB and other applicable state and federal laws, including the Medical Practice Act, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people ... direct the Texas Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches to correct such gross abuses of human rights as evidenced by the daily activities of the Texas Medical Board and act with utmost haste to correct these injustices.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Resolution regarding the Texas Medical Board to be presented at the Texas Democratic and Republican primary precinct conventions at 7 PM Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Whereas, the Texas Medical Board (TMB) has come under considerable public scrutiny in Texas and around the country, and

Whereas, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has filed a lawsuit against it in federal court because of its abuses and failures to protect the health of Texans, and

Whereas, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has recognized the TMB as being 'the worst medical board in the nation' and being rife with constitutional violations of due process, corruption, and unethical conflicts of interest, and

Whereas, the Executive Branch, under which it operates, has failed to take appropriate action, and

Whereas, the Legislature has failed to execute sufficient oversight or provide legislative relief, and

Whereas, the possibility of Judicial relief is remote, and

Whereas, Constitutional Due Process and other freedoms we all hold dear are threatened if Texans do not intervene, and

Whereas, health care is too important to leave to politicians and lawyers who have no training or experience in healthcare,

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people of the Republican Party of Texas direct their elected officials to intervene in specific cases to insure that physicians and other healthcare providers have their Constitutional Due Process rights protected, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people .... direct their elected officials to intervene in specific cases to guarantee that physicians with disabilities are given state and federal protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people .... direct their elected officials to demand that the Texas Medical Board shall comply fully with Open Government Laws, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people .... direct their elected officials to demand that all healthcare licensing agencies require their licensees to participate in continuing medical education such that every complaint about any licensee is evaluated as to its significance and whether a change of process might have prevented patient harm or improve the health of Texans, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people .... direct their elected officials to care less about giving or not giving "legal advice" and care more about stopping the abuses of the Texas Medical Board, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people.... condemn the Texas legislature for not conducting proper oversight of the Texas Medical Board, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people .... condemn the Texas Executive Branch for not enforcing constitutional due process at the Texas Medical Board, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people ... condemn the Texas Attorney General because of his refusal to render constitutional opinions enforcing open government laws at the TMB and other applicable state and federal laws, including the Medical Practice Act, and

Be it therefore now Resolved, the people ... direct the Texas Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches to correct such gross abuses of human rights as evidenced by the daily activities of the Texas Medical Board and act with utmost haste to correct these injustices.