Pubdate: Fri, 19 Apr 2002
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2002 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.news-observer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304
Author: SARAH AVERY

DOCTOR LOSES LICENSE FOR YEAR

RALEIGH - In a move that was "one step away" from the worst punishment 
available, the N.C. Medical Board imposed a minimum one-year suspension 
against Dr. Joseph Talley for breaching care standards in his treatment of 
pain patients with high dosages of narcotics.

Talley, who turns 65 on Saturday, may effectively be out of business after 
practicing since 1969 in the small textile mill village of Grover, on the 
South Carolina line.

"When the board brought its charges and published them, they imposed the 
punishment and carried it out," Talley testified during his sentencing 
hearing Thursday before the board rendered its judgment. "The damage was 
done. My career is gone. My financial security is gone. My reputation is gone."

Still, Talley remained unrepentant.

"I am not hear to beg your indulgence," he said. "I continue to assert that 
I did right."

The board could have revoked Talley's license, which would have prohibited 
him from practicing medicine in North Carolina for at least two years 
before petitioning for a new license. With the suspension, which the board 
imposed for a minimum of one year, Talley can seek reinstatement in half 
that time.

Still, Talley's lawyer said, the decision was devastating. "You can't call 
it a victory in any respect," Robert Clay said. "It is one step away from 
the death penalty. All it does is shorten the period of time before he can 
reapply for his license."

Talley appeared tired and irritable after the hearing. In a brief statement 
before television cameras outside the medical board's office, he stood with 
his family at his side and answered reporters' questions with 
uncharacteristic one-word responses.

His daughter, Margaret Talley-Seijn, said the legal ordeals over her 
father's prescribing practices have taken a toll on the family.

"This has been very, very hard," Talley-Seijn said, adding that no one had 
yet contemplated what the next move would be, nor whether Talley would seek 
reinstatement in a year.

Talley's troubles began last October, when the board issued charges against 
him for his treatment of patients with pain. His practice, in a small 
office across the street from a bedspread factory, was a heavy prescriber 
of narcotics such as morphine, methadone and OxyContin.

Patients drove from far and near because Talley was willing to prescribe 
the drugs at dosages pain patients said no other doctors would consider. 
Several patients testified Thursday before the board, crediting Talley with 
saving their lives.

"Dr. Talley gave me my life back," said Jerry W. Gray, who drove to Grover 
from Clarksville, Tenn., to see Talley. "My every waking moment was 
consumed by trying to find some way to ease the pain."

Talley put him on morphine, and he was able to remarry after his first wife 
died, and resume a more normal life.

But Talley's fate was all but decided. In March, after a three-day hearing 
that resembled a trial, the board found Talley guilty of deviating from 
accepted standards of care for routinely failing to perform physical exams 
on patients before prescribing the powerful drugs. It also faulted him for 
failing to properly monitor patients for drug compliance and signs of 
addiction.

That ruling meant Talley faced two possible punishments: revocation of his 
license, or a suspension for some period of time.

Revocations are rare. Last year, the board revoked eight medical licenses, 
but in each of those cases, the doctors practiced in other states, and only 
had their North Carolina privileges yanked as a result of punishments taken 
in their home states.

Another 13 doctors had their licenses suspended, but eight of them were 
allowed to continue practicing by consenting to certain conditions. Five 
more doctors' licenses were summarily suspended, meaning they had to quit 
practicing until the charges against them could be aired.

Talley had all but ended his practice in January, when the Drug Enforcement 
Administration withdrew his registration number to prescribe controlled 
substances. Most of Talley's practice involved such prescriptions, 
primarily for pain management.

He has maintained that his general practice was transformed to one that 
concentrated on pain management because he was not afraid to put people on 
large doses of narcotics, including OxyContin. As a result, he said, pain 
patients spread the word about him and others began seeking him out.

But the DEA contends that many of Talley's patients were not pain suffers, 
but were instead drug abusers and traffickers. In its Jan. 28 order 
suspending Talley's controlled substance registration, the DEA alleged that 
at least 23 of Talley's former patients "have died, in part, due to drug 
overdoses."

Talley is concerned that the DEA will seek a criminal indictment against 
him, and he has hired a lawyer in Charlotte. The DEA has precedent. In 
March, a Florida doctor was sentenced to 63 years in federal prison for 
prescribing large quantities of narcotic pain relievers to four patients 
who later died of drug overdoses.
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