CINCINNATI — Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders has opened an investigation into an Edgewood pain management clinic where a doctor’s license was restricted in June after he let an unlicensed employee administer anesthesia.
The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure effectively suspended Dr. Pragya Gupta from practicing at Advanced Pain Treatment Center in Edgewood following a January grievance by a former patient.
Wendy Fillhardt of Alexandria claimed an employee with “no medical certification” administered her anesthesia “on multiple occasions.” Fillhardt also filed an April lawsuit alleging she “sustained complications to her health as well as psychological trauma” from the experience.
Sanders said he launched the probe after reading about Gupta in a June report by LINKnky, a content partner of WCPO 9 News. That report included a quote from the medical board’s consultant, who found Gupta’s employee violated Kentucky law by giving “intravenous midazolam,” a sedative, to patients.
“My conclusion is Donnie J. Thomas is practicing medicine without a license,” wrote Dr. Jeffrey Berg of Louisville. “This represents an immediate threat to the safety and health of the citizens of Kentucky.”
Practicing medicine without a license is a Class D felony in Kentucky, punishable by up to five years in jail. Sanders won’t say if that’s what he’s investigating. Nor will he provide any other details about the case.
“I’ve obtained the Kentucky medical board findings and opened my own investigation based upon what we found in their investigation,” Sanders said.
Thomas declined to be interviewed. His attorney called Fillhardt's lawsuit "frivolous" and said her safety was never in jeopardy.
“Anything Mr. Thomas did was at the direction of Dr. Gupta,” Steve Megerle wrote. “It is a fact, the treating physician, not a medical assistant or nurse, directs all patient care in an examination, procedural or surgical room.”
Gupta’s attorney said the medical board recently allowed him to resume his practice under the supervision of a board-certified anesthesiologist in Paducah, Ky.
“I don’t think any crimes were committed here,” said Judd Uhl, managing partner of the Cincinnati and Lexington offices of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP.
The WCPO I-Team joined with LINKnky to look into the medical board’s findings. You can read LINK’s story here.
Among other things, the I-Team learned Kentucky law is murky when it comes to what kinds of care medical assistants can provide. That's partly because Kentucky doesn’t license the profession, but regulates it indirectly through doctors.
“There is no statute or regulation that prohibits Mr. Gupta from training Mr. Thomas or including him in procedures,” wrote Uhl, who was hired by Gupta’s insurance company to represent him in the medical board inquiry.
In a 2017 policy document, the American Association of Medical Associates said “common law principles” generally allow Kentucky physicians to delegate tasks that do not “require the exercise of independent professional judgment, or the making of clinical assessments, evaluations, or interpretations.” Those tasks include “intramuscular, intradermal and subcutaneous injections.”
The medical board’s consultant argued monitoring anesthesia is not something doctors can delegate to medical assistants. “It is standard of care that the anesthesia monitor must be at least an RN,” or registered nurse, Berg wrote.
In his response to the medical board, Gupta said he personally trained Thomas since 2002 and never experienced “a single adverse event … where he was involved.”
In an interview, Fillhardt said she has yet to recover from the treatments she received from Thomas and Gupta.
“I was working full-time when I went there and it just went downhill from the moment I went,” said Fillhardt. “I went there to get better and I’m not. I’m worse.”
