Pubdate: Tue, 10 May 2005
Source: Daily Progress, The (VA)
Copyright: 2005 Media General Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.dailyprogress.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1545
Author: Claudia Pinto

EX-CLINIC DIRECTOR PENALIZED $4,000

The former medical director of an Albemarle County methadone clinic has 
been slapped with a $4,000 fine for violations that occurred under her watch.

Dr. Dorothy Tompkins has until the end of May to pay the Virginia Board of 
Medicine for the seven citations against her. The violations included 
dispensing the synthetic opiate without a license and discrepancies 
"between the amounts of methadone purchased and available."

I signed a consent order saying that I neither admit nor deny the 
allegations," Tompkins said. "And that's my comment."

Dr. William Harp, the Board of Medicine's executive director, declined to 
talk about Tompkins' case specifically. Generally speaking, he said, 
doctors who come before the board can be exonerated, fined or have their 
licenses suspended or revoked.

Fines are a fairly frequently used sanction," Harp said.

In 2004, the state's department of licensing gave Pantops Clinic the choice 
of losing its license, filing an appeal or changing ownership because of 
numerous violations that occurred since it opened in 2002. Tompkins opted 
to sell.

In less than two years of operation, the Pantops clinic racked up 160 
violations and became the first such facility in the state to be threatened 
with closure. Tompkins was not cited in those violations, though they 
occurred during her tenure.

As part of its overall clinic investigation, the state reported that on 
more than one occasion methadone fell into the wrong hands. Violations 
ranged from providing patients with too many take-home drugs to failing to 
ensure that patients weren't getting double doses of methadone by enrolling 
in a second clinic.

The investigation also found:

- - One person who overdosed three times told police he had obtained 
methadone from a clinic client.

- - A nurse dispensed and administered the drug without a doctor's order.

- - A vial of the clinic's methadone was found in purse of a woman who 
fatally overdosed; methadone was determined to be a contributing factor in 
her death.

Tompkins claims that some of state's findings were never substantiated.

The person who went into the emergency room had taken methadone but it was 
never proven where it came from," Tompkins said. "The woman who died had 
multiple drugs in her system."

The facility, now called Addiction Recovery Systems at Pantops, dispenses 
methadone and provides drug screening and counseling. It's located on State 
Farm Boulevard.

Methadone eliminates severe withdrawal symptoms from heroin, OxyContin and 
other opiates. But it's also sought after by some addicts for recreational use.
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MAP posted-by: Beth