CardioExchange Archive

A Missouri cardiologist who has been accused of unnecessarily implanting stents in six patients has been temporarily barred from seeing patients. The Missouri State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts, which licenses physicians and investigates and disciplines physicians in cases of accused misconduct, issued an emergency suspension of the cardiologist’s license to practice, according to a news report by Jeremy Kohler published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The accused Jefferson City cardiologist has filed documents disputing the charges. He can seek reinstatement on February 4 at an administrative hearing. According to the Post-Dispatch, this is the first time the board has issued an emergency suspension in a very long time. The action follows a 2011 Missouri law that expanded the board’s power to issue emergency suspensions.

The cardiologist is accused of placing 13 stents in the coronary arteries of a patient that “for the most part, were not blocked,” according to the article. In another case, “he told a patient she would have died overnight without the three stents he put in, but records showed no significant disease.”

Four patients are suing the cardiologist for malpractice. These cases appear to provide the basis for some of the board’s accusations.