MATTER OF SOLOMON v. ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW BOARD FOR PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL CONDUCT, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
| Citation | 303 A.D.2d 788,756 N.Y.S.2d 335 |
| Court | New York Supreme Court Appellate Division |
| Decision Date | 06 March 2003 |
| Parties | In the Matter of ABRAHAM SOLOMON, Petitioner,<BR>v.<BR>ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW BOARD FOR PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL CONDUCT, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, Respondent. |
Petitioner, an emergency room physician, was charged with numerous violations of the Education Law stemming from his care and treatment of 10 patients. Following a hearing, a Hearing Committee of the State Board for Professional Medical Conduct sustained some of the charges of gross negligence and negligence on more than one occasion, as well as the charges of fraud in petitioner's applications for privileges or employment at three hospitals, and revoked his license to practice medicine. On appeal, respondent affirmed most, but not all, of the Hearing Committee's findings as to guilt, sustained additional charges of gross incompetence and incompetence on more than one occasion and confirmed revocation of petitioner's license. Petitioner then commenced this proceeding seeking to annul respondent's determination.
Since our inquiry is limited to ascertaining whether respondent's determination is arbitrary and capricious, is affected by an error of law or constitutes an abuse of discretion (see Matter of Steckmeyer v State Bd. for Professional Med. Conduct, 295 AD2d 815, 817 [2002]; Matter of Pisnanont v New York State Bd. for Professional Med. Conduct, 266 AD2d 592, 593 [1999]), it will not be disturbed if it has a rational basis and is factually supported (see Matter of Moss v Chassin, 209 AD2d 889, 891 [1994], lv denied 85 NY2d 805 [1995], cert denied 516 US 861 [1995]). Applying that standard here, we conclude that respondent's determination must be confirmed.
Based upon his review of the hospital records of the patients at issue, Gerard Brogan Jr., a board-certified emergency room physician, testified in detail as to petitioner's failure to obtain proper patient histories, performance of inadequate physical examinations, failure to order appropriate laboratory tests, misdiagnoses of life-threatening conditions that should have been readily recognized and administration of inappropriate and contraindicated medications. Brogan further testified that, under the circumstances presented, these omissions and erroneous treatments constituted deviations from generally accepted medical practices. This testimony, together with the opinions offered by two additional medical experts, Alveris Molina and Daniel Murphy, and the relevant hospital records provide a rational basis for sustaining the charges of practicing with gross negligence, negligence on more than one occasion, incompetence and gross incompetence on more than one occasion. To the extent that the testimonies of petitioner and his experts were to the contrary, they raised a credibility issue for respondent to resolve and, in so doing, it was free to credit the testimonies of Brogan, Molina and Murphy over those of petitioner's experts (see generally Matter of Chua v Chassin, 215 AD2d 953, 955 [1995], lv denied 86 NY2d 708 [1995]; Matter of Hachamovitch v State Bd. for Professional Med. Conduct, 206 AD2d 637, 638 [1994], lv denied 84 NY2d 809 [1994]). Thus, we cannot agree that respondent's determination regarding petitioner's patient care is arbitrary, capricious or...
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