People ex rel. McFarlane v. Pfeiffer

• Decision Date: 20 February 1986
• Docket Number: No. 84CA0366,84CA0366
• Citation: 725 P.2d 19
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, ex rel. J.D. McFARLANE, Attorney General and his Successor in Office, Duane Woodard, Complainant-Appellee, v. Richard E. PFEIFFER, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., Respondent-Appellant. . II
• Court: Colorado Court of Appeals

Page 19

725 P.2d 19

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, ex rel. J.D. McFARLANE Attorney General and his Successor in Office Duane Woodard, Complainant-Appellee, v. Richard E. PFEIFFER, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., Respondent-Appellant.

No. 84CA0366.

Colorado Court of Appeals Div. II.

Feb. 20, 1986.

Rehearing Denied April 10, 1986.

Certiorari Denied (People) Sept. 29, 1986.

Duane Woodard, Atty. Gen., Charles B. Howe, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Richard H. Forman, Sol. Gen., Beverly Fulton Beckett, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for complainant-appellee.

Gorsuch, Kirgis, Campbell, Walker & Grover, John S. Pfeiffer, Ann E. DeVine, Faegre & Benson, Ann E. DeVine, Denver, for respondent-appellant.

PIERCE, Judge.

Richard E. Pfeiffer, M.D. (Dr. Pfeiffer), appeals from an order of the State Board of Medical Examiners (Board), which found that he had committed "two or more acts or omissions which failed to meet generally accepted standards of medical practice in violation of [§ 12-36-117(1)(p), C.R.S.] ...." We set aside the order.

Specifically, the Board found that, in the treatment of one of his obstetric patients, the following acts constituted substandard medical practice: (1) "Dr. Pfeiffer failed to obtain adequate information from the labor and delivery personnel regarding the fetal heart rate before ordering administration of terbutaline at 2:00 A.M. and 3:29 A.M., and the administration of morphine at 2:00 A.M."; (2) Dr. Pfeiffer "ordered the administration of terbutaline at 2:00 A.M. and again at 3:29 A.M., without adequately evaluating the patient"; (3) Dr. Pfeiffer "ordered the administration of morphine ... at 2:00 A.M. without adequately evaluating the patient"; (4) Dr. Pfeiffer "failed to personally evaluate [the patient] and the status of her fetus ...."

These findings stem from the doctor's apparent misdiagnosis and treatment of a patient who was admitted to a hospital on May 26, 1980, at approximately 4:40 P.M. for observation and evaluation of signs of active labor. During the course of that evening and the following morning, Dr. Pfeiffer evaluated his patient and maintained telephone communication with the nursing staff on duty. Nevertheless, the following morning at approximately 8:12 A.M., a stillborn male infant was delivered from the patient by Dr. Pfeiffer.

The Board may discipline a physician for unprofessional conduct which is defined in § 12-36-117(1), C.R.S. (1985 Repl. Vol. 5). The pertinent definition here requires "two or more acts or omissions which fail to meet generally acceptable standards of medical practice." Section 12-36-117(1)(p), C.R.S. (1985 Repl. Vol. 5). Thus, the statute clearly requires multiple acts of substandard care. See Colorado State Board of Medical Examiners v. Jorgensen, 198 Colo. 275, 599 P.2d 869 (1979).

The critical issue here is whether the Board's conclusions point to one incident of substandard practice or treatment, or whether they in fact constitute multiple acts of unprofessional conduct.

We first conclude that the Board's sanctioning of Dr. Pfeiffer for failing to evaluate his patient's condition or to obtain adequate information regarding her condition, before beginning the medication at 2:00 A.M. and continuing the medication, thereafter, are part and parcel of each other and could not be separated logically so as to constitute two or more acts. Second, the words of the statute requiring two or more acts of substandard "medical practice" point to a continued course of conduct, rather than to two or more administrations of medication within the course of treatment of a specific medical problem.

Significantly, the statutory section defining the term "practice of medicine" includes "suggesting,...