By Kate Farrish
A Norwich doctor was disciplined by the state Medical Examining Board for failing to appropriately manage the care of patients with pain, diabetes and a seizure disorder.
It’s the third time that Dr. Helar Campos, who also has an office in New London, has been disciplined by the board.
Campos was reprimanded and fined $8,000 and had his medical license placed on probation for six months under a consent order he agreed to. During the probation, he must hire a physician to monitor a portion of his patients’ records.
In 2012, Campos was fined $7,000 for the illegal delegation of nursing care to unlicensed staff, state Department of Public Health records show. In 2014, he was fined $5,000 and his license was placed on probation for a year after he delegated the monitoring of his diabetes patients’ use of insulin pumps to unlicensed employees who worked for the pump manufacturer, records show.
The latest consent order says that between 2010 and 2014, he failed to document the reasons for prescribing controlled substances and failed to refer patients to a pain specialist and a diabetes specialist. In 2015, he failed to adequately follow-up when a patient with a seizure disorder had elevated levels of the anti-seizure drug Dilantin, the order said. Campos maintains that he met the standard of care for that patient but the patient did not follow his instructions, DPH records show.
Campos has completed courses in medical documentation and the management of pain and diabetes. In agreeing to the consent order, he chose not to contest the allegations against him but admitted no wrongdoing.
Dr. C. Steven Wolf, a member of the medical board, said he was concerned that Campos has had a pattern of being disciplined by the board.
Campos’ lawyer, Aggie Cahill of Hartford, defended him, saying he has been honored in Norwich for providing quality care to a poor, underserved population of patients.
“There is no reason to be concerned about this physician,’’ she said.
Wolf joined the board in unanimously approving the disciplinary action against Campos, with board member Dr. Daniel Rissi abstaining.
The board also reprimanded and fined Dr. Judith Major of Shelton $7,500 for changing a patient’s chart after DPH officials notified her that the patient had filed a complaint with them.
When certifying the patient, a retired police officer, for a medical marijuana prescription, Major stated an incorrect diagnosis, a spinal cord injury, and omitted the correct diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, records show. She then altered some of the patient’s records by adding the correct diagnosis after the fact, records show. While the patient complained that Major had knowingly misstated the original diagnosis, DPH officials were unable to substantiate that the errors were deliberate.
Major’s medical license was also placed on probation for six months, during which she must take a course in medical documentation and hire a doctor to review her medical marijuana certification patients. In signing the consent order, Major chose not to contest the allegations.
The board also reprimanded a Watertown doctor and banned him from providing clinical care or prescribing medication to patients for having prescribed excessive doses of controlled substances for patients between 2013 and 2016. A consent order agreed to by Dr. Jeffrey Stern said he also failed to examine patients to justify a prescription, allowed one patient to call in her own prescriptions to a pharmacy and failed to keep any records for some patients during those same years.
The ban took effect Jan. 31, the same day he closed his practice, the order said. Stern, who chose not to contest the allegations against him, had already voluntarily surrendered his registration to prescribe controlled substances with the state Department of Consumer Protection in 2016.
David Tilles, a DPH staff attorney, told the board that Stern has moved to Florida to work full-time on the faculty of the University of Florida.
Dr. Pacifico Flores Jr. of Bristol was reprimanded for failing to take continuing medical education courses between 2015 and 2017, a consent order he agree to said. The order also said that Flores falsely stated on his 2017 license renewal form in 2017 that he had taken the courses.
Flores did not contest the allegations. His license was placed on probation for one year or until he takes all of the required courses, the order said.
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