Clinic Shuttered After Doctor’s License Suspended

BRISTOL, Va. – A local physician – whose license was suspended after regulators termed her a “substantial danger” to public health – will appear before the Virginia Board of Medicine later this month. 
That board voted in April to suspend the license of Deborah J. Weddington, who formerly practiced at Med Express, a shuttered health care clinic at 1315 Euclid Ave.
Former patients, frustrated because they have been unable to get their medical records or refills for prescriptions, have called the Bristol Herald Courier to report that the clinic has been dark for several weeks.
The action came after Weddington violated a July 2008 Virginia Board of Medicine order that restricted her medical license, board Executive Director William Harp wrote in an order dated April 28.
“The board concludes that a substantial danger to the public health or safety warrants this action and orders that the license of Deborah Joan Weddington, M.D., to practice medicine in the commonwealth of Virginia be, and hereby is, suspended,” Harp wrote.
Last year, the board placed Weddington on indefinite probation and permanently restricted her from providing chronic pain management treatment or services, documents show. The board also directed Weddington to transfer any patients she was treating for chronic pain management to other providers within 30 days.
“Subsequent to the entry of the board’s [July 2008] order, Dr. Weddington provided chronic pain management treatment, including the prescribing of opioids, to at least 17 patients and – in a written statement to a Department of Health Professions investigator dated March 17, 2009 – stated her intention to continue treatment of certain chronic pain patients until they see another provider or have been tapered off chronic pain medications,” Harp wrote in another April 2009 board document.
A suspension means it is unlawful for Weddington to treat patients, prescribe medications or otherwise practice medicine. The board’s action was a summary suspension without hearing, which means the board is alleging that Weddington violated those restrictions.
The Virginia Department of Health Professions – the umbrella state agency that includes the Board of Medicine – doesn’t comment on the specific circumstances of orders or suspensions, said Jennifer Deschenes, deputy executive director of discipline.
“The board took an emergency action, without a chance for Dr. Weddington to comment,” Deschenes said in a phone interview. “We have given her notice of a formal hearing where she and her attorney can appear.”
Weddington plans to contest the allegations during the board’s meeting June 25-27, said her attorney, Lewis Kincer of Richmond.
“I think that the board is the appropriate forum to present her case, and we will do so. Anything further is best presented to the board,” Kincer wrote in an e-mail in response to a request for comment.
Weddington doesn’t have a listed phone number.
In a July 2008 order, a special conference committee of the Virginia Board of Medicine made a series of findings regarding Weddington’s practice, documents show. The committee found that between 2002 and 2006, Weddington failed to properly manage the care of a number of patients.
Among the violations, the board determined that Weddington:
n Failed to properly assess patients and document indications for treatment with opioid therapy and failed to update patient medical records.
n Failed to document patient response to pain control.
n Failed to order unannounced drug screens or pill counts to determine if patients were complying with treatment plans.
n Failed to document signs and symptoms of possible abuse of narcotic therapies.
n Prescribed the weight loss drug Phentermine to some patients without documenting their medical history, conducting a physical exam or establishing a diet, weight loss or exercise program.
n Failed to communicate with other doctors on the care of patients, specifically one woman who admitted to snorting Percocet to the point it damaged her nose and soft palate and another who slept through her gynecological examination.
n Provided medical care to “almost all staff members” at Med Express, but didn’t maintain proper medical records of treatment.
n Told an investigator she didn’t communicate with a patient’s primary care provider and didn’t conduct any exam of another patient before issuing a prescription for hydrocodone, a pain medication.
n Received samples of controlled substances at Med Express, but didn’t properly document a complete inventory and supplied samples of controlled substances to patients without proper documentation.
n Told the committee that each of her chronic pain patients undergoes random drug screening each year, but didn’t provide records to show screenings occurred.
n In March 2006, Weddington tested positive for butalbital and barbiturates but was unable to produce a prescription. The committee also didn’t find Weddington’s explanation “credible.”
n Admitted taking doses of cough medicine containing hydrocodone from office sample stocks, while at work.
n Told the committee, at one time, she had fallen a year behind in completing medical charts.
“Dr. Weddington stated that she strives to provide good patient care, but realized that her medical record keeping, in some instances, was inadequate and that she failed to effectively manage her chronic pain patients and did not recognize signs of abuse,” Harp wrote in the 2008 document.
Weddington, 55, is a former high school teacher who earned her medical degree from the University of Virginia, according to her online biography. She came to Med Express in August 2003.“Dr. Weddington will no longer be serving patients from this location,” according to a white sheet of paper taped to the door of Med Express. The clinic also is known as Bristol Family Health.
The clinic space was leased from Kamin Realty, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based firm, by Haynes & Associates of Kingsport. Attempts to speak with a representative of the Kingsport firm about the status of the clinic were unsuccessful.
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