Former Iowa City doctor accused of professional incompetence – Iowa Capital Dispatch

A former Iowa Metropolis doctor has been charged by the Iowa Board of Medication with skilled incompetence.

Dr. Shafik N. Wassef, a 38-year-old Iowa-licensed doctor who previously in Iowa Metropolis, is charged by the board with 4 violations of the principles governing the observe of drugs in Iowa.

They embody skilled incompetence associated to a considerable lack of expertise or potential to discharge one’s skilled obligations; partaking in a observe that’s dangerous or detrimental to the general public, which might embody the failure to train the diploma of ability anticipated of a doctor; and unprofessional conduct associated to a failure to keep up the confidentiality of affected person info.

The specifics of how Wassef is alleged to have violated these guidelines is disclosed solely in information that, beneath a 2021 Iowa Supreme Courtroom ruling, should be saved confidential till the case is resolved.

A listening to date within the case has but to be scheduled.

As a part of this identical case, the board initially filed single cost in opposition to Wassef in February 2021. The board has saved confidential not solely the alleged information and circumstances that led to that cost, however the cost itself. Because of this, it’s not clear what particular regulation Wassef was accused of violating in that case, though he did deny the allegation in a response filed with the board.

Board paperwork point out the case in opposition to Wassef dates again to no less than 2018.

Different latest actions by the board embody:

Dr. Emad M. Hasan – The board lately voted to revive, free and away from any restrictions, Hasan’s license. Hasan is a 49-year-old Iowa-licensed doctor who previously practiced neurological surgical procedure in Iowa Metropolis, and who now practices in North Carolina. Two months in the past, Hasan entered into settlement settlement with the Iowa board whereby he agreed to pay a $2,500 civil penalty and submit a written corrective-action plan describing the steps he was taking to keep away from making “errors” of the sort that allegedly occurred throughout a Could 2021 operation. In that case, Hasan was to carry out a frontotemporal craniotomy to chop out a lesion on a affected person’s mind. The plan for the operation known as for Hasan to provoke surgical procedure on the suitable aspect of the affected person’s head, however Hasan is alleged to have mistakenly initiated the process from the affected person’s left aspect. In keeping with the board, as a result of location of the lesion, the surgical procedure continued and was finally accomplished with out issues for the affected person.

Dr. Danny Lewis, Jr. – The board voted to revive, free and away from any restrictions, Lewis’ license. In keeping with the board, the 31-year-old doctor, who practices household medication in Waterloo, entered right into a settlement settlement with the board in March 2020 to resolve allegations that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with a feminine affected person in September 2019. In keeping with the board, the connection was concurrent with the couple’s physician-patient relationship, and Lewis continued to deal with the affected person whereas remaining in a sexual relationship along with her. Underneath the phrases of the settlement settlement, Lewis was ordered to pay a $1,000 civil penalty and full a board-approved program on skilled boundaries. The board additionally positioned Lewis on probation for a interval of three to 5 years, topic to board monitoring. Final month, two years after the probation order was entered, the board decided Lewis had “efficiently complied with the phrases” of the 2020 order.

Dr. Mark A. Pithan – The board voted to revive, free and away from any restrictions, Pithan’s license. In keeping with the board, the 45-year-old doctor, who practices neurology in Davenport, entered right into a consent settlement with the board in 2017 when he was granted an Iowa license. Two years earlier than, in Could 2015, Pithan was arrested in Colorado on suspicion of driving beneath the affect of medication. In September of that yr, he allegedly admitted to Drug Enforcement Administration investigators he had self-prescribed and self-administered a managed substance, and he voluntarily surrendered his DEA registration and all managed substances in his workplace. In 2016, he efficiently accomplished a 30-day remedy program, agreed to a 180-day suspension of his Colorado license, and agreed to 5 years of ongoing monitoring. In 2017, the Iowa board made its resolution to grant Pithan a license and referred him to the Iowa Doctor Well being Program for substance abuse remedy and monitoring. Final month, the Iowa board decided Pithan efficiently accomplished the phrases of its 2017 order.