Complaint Review: Governor John Kasich Ohio

Governor Kasich campaigned to change the Ohio State Medical Board - initially wanting all Members to resign - but now that he has the chance to make appointments - the appointments are lagging behind the open chairs. 

There are four vacancies this year: (1) Anita M. Steinbergh, D.O., President, Westerville, OH, Family Practice, Term: 7/8/1993 - 4/25/2013.  (2) Mark A. Bechtel, M.D., Supervising Member, Westerville, OH, Dermatology, Term: 1/17/2012 3/18/2013. (3) Laurie O. Elsass, Dublin, OH, Consumer Member, Term: 3/29/2011 - 7/31/2013. (4) Darshan Mahajan M.D., Elyria, OH, Neurology / Child Neurology, Term: 5/13/2008 - 3/18/2013 - and so far no one has been appointed or re-appointed to the 2 spots open since 3/2013.  

Notice on the Medical Board roster that everyone seems to come from Westerville, Dublin, and south of Cleveland - it's a Board representing only certain parts of Ohio.  The last time that a Cleveland Clinic physician was on the Board is over 20 years ago, no one can remember when a University Hospitals or MetroHealth physician was ever on the Board.  But Dublin & Westerville are the hot spots to be if you want to be on the State Medical Board.  The Kasich's live in their Genoa Township home just north of Westerville.  Dublin is about 18-20 miles from the Kasich's - so Kasich picks his neighbors for the Medical Board - provincial picks.  Steinbergh & Kasich are neighbors - which is hardly objective, fair, or 'beyond the box' thinking.   

It really helps if Board Members know what they are doing a month in advance however, and the Medical Board has had no Director for the last 6 months - but Kasich I'm sure is looking in Westerville.  Kimberly Anderson - the cause of the expensive inappropriate evaluations of physicians bankrupting the Medical Board coffers - is not acceptable. 

Anita Steinbergh DO has been recycled 5 times, and is the cause of many of the false cases at the Medical Board - her criteria for taking a medical license are not the legal criteria.  There are personal vendettas involved in a stack of cases at the State Medical Board, and during her tenure on the Board, the Medical Board - as a policy - does not investigate complaints where her 'friends' are involved.  In one case - Anita Steinbergh DO is a personal friend of the complained about physician and his wife - Dr. Nice - and mentions Mrs. Nice in Board meetings.  that case was never investigated. 

Dr. Nice complaints are never investigated, and he has gotten a copy of any complaints involving himself against state law through the years, courtesy of Dr. O'Day, Dr. Steinbergh, and Dr. Talmadge.  Friend treatment.  

While Governor Kasich does not have time to name appointments that he supposedly wanted to fill 3 years ago, he is having his office hang up on a woman physician who has had a 'case' with the Medical Board for 20 years for doing her job as a physician - professionalism means reporting the problems when those problems interfere with patient care.  And having his staff tell her that there is nothing to discuss unless she gets a sixth psychiatric evaluation - which is inappropriate, being a jerk, and boys-being-boys.

(1) the woman has had 5 psychiatric evaluations with no psychiatric diagnosis found, (2) the Medical Board used taxpayer monies with pre-fixed experts to go after her twice & both these evaluations involved admitted cheating on the part of the Board to get a case/diagnosis, (3) all that these evaluations concentrate on is the sex life of the woman MD and why she didn't 'like' Dr. Nice or want to do his 'personal needs' (because he can't do wrist fracture care), (4) there is no cause for a sixth psychiatric evaluation as the US personality expert psychiatrist has come down in the woman's favor 15 years ago - that this was a political Board case, not a psychiatric diagnosis case (he writes the Psychiatric Textbook for the US Residency Training = the DSM of Psychiatry), and (5) that all the Medical Board does instead of 'settling,' as the Ohio Court of Appeals told them to do in 1993, is to order another and another psychiatric evaluation to postpone the liability assessment - the Board is at fault in this case.  They were negligent, wrong, and caused severe damages = wrecked a physician's life for sport = Westerville-Dublin-Genoa sporting event.  

The Medical Board is at fault for taking the woman MD's medical license without due process, without cause, with gender bias, without checking the facts, for withholding needed medical care & not allowing the woman MD care-to-function, for ordering her to successive psychiatric evaluations under duress (emotional damages), and for the loss of her career, family life (marriage), & Fellowship = two-digit millions.  

Governor Kasich is in deep doodoo with this case - so he behaves inappropriate, unprofessionally, out-of-his-sphere to say or recommend, and stupidly without any consultation.  And the case is not his fault except that he has continued it, and his office has repeatedly insulted the woman MD on the phone, and refused to help (1) have the case externally reviewed to determine a monetary damage, and (2) bring the parties to the discussion table and make them sit there until a resolution is reached.  You can hear him laughing in the background when she calls - it's all a joke.       

It is not criteria for a psychiatric evaluation to report Dr. Timothy Nice, and that orthopedic care of women in Ohio is sometimes terribly bad - as experienced by this woman physician.  Dr. Nice has care problems - the Cleveland Clinic knew this when they trained him years ago.  He might be Anita Steinbergh's friend, but he is a jerk and a totally negligent orthopedic - he has no real talent for orthopedics & less interest except in the money.  And no one on the Medical Board has questioned the truth of the bad care, or that Dr. Nice does very bad orthopedics much of the time, just that this woman MD handled it wrong.  And what was the RIGHT WAY to handle this situation? - no one knows.  There are no medical mistake laws in Ohio - the legislature doesn't believe that medical mistakes are a problem in Ohio.

But 5 psychiatric evaluations, and a sixth evaluation, are not the solution to this boys-ganging-up-on-the-girl who complained problem.  She had no patient complaints, and could not work with the Ohio care that she got, was not interested in playing with Dr. Nice, she ended up at Mayo Clinic - and the two sides haven't discussed in 20 years.  Everyone speaks through psychiatrists or lawyers, shouting or hanging up, and the woman MD has no criteria for any psychiatric diagnosis - but she does have a bone problem which is still untreated.  Dr. Licata at the Cleveland Clinic won't treat this woman MD unless he is assured that his license is 'safe.'   

The Ohio Medical Board suspended her medical license 20 years ago with a provisional hypothetical excuse of a case that didn't pan out, and has had her go through 5 psychiatric evaluations - which did not yield a diagnosis - no surprise there as she has a MENSA IQ and practiced a better version of Internal Medicine than is practiced in Ohio.  But she has a case worker and no patient complaints - while there are physicians with >5 patient complaints at the Medical Board and no case worker. 

So the Medical Board suspended her license for nothing - and because no one on the Medical Board is a psychiatrist and no one is an orthopedic - the Board has been doing malpractice to make a diagnosis without office visits, workup, or testing - and has no expertise in the care that she is questioning.  The Medical Board of Ohio is a completely inadequate group of people who just keep ordering psychiatric evaluations of any physician who objects to the bad care problems, and licensure problems, in Ohio.  The Board, as it is currently comprised - the current Members - and with the current policies - can't function. 

There have needed to be reforms at the State Medical Board for the last 20 years, but no one knows what reforms are needed as everything is confidential.  No one knows why this woman MD needs a sixth psychiatric evaluation - that is 'confidential.'  All that Anita Steinbergh says is 'psychiatric evaluation,' read bestsellers, and I'm not responsible for that.  But all that Kasich's office was doing last week was talking psychiatric evaluation - and behaving as if they all needed one - from Elliot to Dave to John.  

Fast forward to 2013: The orthopedic care is still bad in Ohio, and the woman has her license still suspended, Governor Kasich is hanging up and saying 6th evaluation or no dice (and that won't happen because there is no indication of the need for that, and serially psychiatric evaluations of normal people cause emotional damage = why Russia does this Governor Kasich, why the Gestapo did it).  Kimberly Anderson investigations are likened to Gestapo. 

However, none of this is the way to handle orthopedic care problems that go bad, and orthopedics who are male jerks.  Governor Kasich getting into the fight, when he knows that the 'confidential' complaint system is the problem, is just beyond inappropriate - it's stupid.  To hear the staff of his Gubernatorial Office, hanging up on the woman MD with all her credentials, sacrifices to get where she got, and her attainments - it just nauseating, inexplicable, and insane.  It's like the world has turned upside down, been thrown into a Vitamix, and come out tipsy. 

The Medical Board now wants a sixth evaluation to try to 'find a case' 20 years later - as there is no statute of limitations at the Ohio State Medical Board.  This is just completely missing the point of having a Medical Board - to go after physicians with patient complaints and improve the care before 20 years.  The Ohio Legislature hasn't gotten around to reforming the State Medical Board for over 20 years.   

For Governor Kasich to suggest that someone get a psychiatric evaluation as a criteria for medical licensure, when all that caused the problem was that she was doing her professional job - to report care abuses, negligences, and wrong care (that she herself had to experienc) - is totally malpractice - practicing without a license.  It's absurd, bizarre, and out of place - as much as the woman suggesting to Governor Kasich to get a psychiatric evaluation would be. 

Governor Kasich doesn't have a MD.  For the State Medical Board to handle this situation with abusive psychiatric evaluations - when the woman MD is a lovely person except when she has to say 'No' - is completely negligence, unprofessional, and like using a bazooka instead of a fly swatter (to quote from THE GOOD WIFE).   

And the reason that she said 'No' has never been asked - but there's a guy MD at Parma Pediatric Services who won't talk to her until this is over.  That's the main reason to end this - the physician that she was interested in never got a chance - she was supposed to 'do it' and 'work with' Dr. Nice - no one knows WHY however.  

No one thought, or asked, that she was trying to keep up appearances for another person - because she really wasn't interested in Dr. Nice - she was pleasant for professionalism and never touched him.  And to have it in public records that she was 'seductive' with the jerk - when she met with him time after time to assert otherwise - is a tragedy.  A girl should be able to say 'No' and get a chance with the right guy before 20 years.  But there's no happy ending with this case - Governor Kasich has seen to that.  He's completely out-of-it and one can only hope that he will do better as a father to his daughters - and not wreck their lives.  Governor Kasich is completely inadequate to his job.