Pubdate: Tue, 23 Aug 2016 Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON) Page: A3 Copyright: 2016 The Hamilton Spectator Contact: http://www.thespec.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/181 Author: Joel OpHardt HAMILTON MARIJUANA DOCTOR GETS 3-MONTH SUSPENSION TORONTO - A Hamilton medical marijuana physician has been handed a three-month suspension for misconduct. Dr. Ira Price pleaded no contest to allegations heard by the discipline committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, including altering a medical record and misleading a college investigator. "The college relies on the honesty of its members in achieving self governance," committee chair Pamela Chart said during Price's official reprimand Monday. "Any failure to be completely honest with the college in its investigative process undermines professional regulation and the public's confidence in the profession." The allegations against Price, the medical director of Synergy Health Services Inc. in Hamilton, stemmed from a patient seeking care for chronic pain with medical cannabis. The patient saw him from December 2012 to April 2014. He complained Price acted unprofessionally, terminating the patient from his practice. The patient's name was redacted in documents provided to The Spectator. When the complaint was filed, Price told the college the patient refused a physical examination. When the patient denied that, medical records seemed to corroborate Price's version of the events. But a forensic examination of the charts showed some records backdated or portions added at a different time. A letter from Price written before the forensic exam said chart entries were made "on the dates indicated in (the patient)'s records, and at the same time as the other entries included under each date-entry." "Doctor Price admitted to altering the patient's chart only after the college had obtained a forensic report," said college solicitor Sayran Sulevani. "The college's respectful submission is the committee send a clear, unequivocal message this form of unethical conduct won't be tolerated." Price did not refute the forensic reports, but offered a response that he often writes chart notes at different times and with different pens, he could not recall when he completed this particular patient's entries, and that he may have backdated some notes. "In this case, the safety of my staff in the workplace was my paramount concern," Price wrote The Spectator. "There are times when it is difficult to chart difficult patient interactions in full at the time events are unfolding because they involve multiple sources and interactions." The committee ordered the suspension of Price's certificate of registration for three months starting Sept. 1, and ordered him to take the first available course on ethics and record-keeping. This isn't his first brush with the self-regulating body. He was issued a caution by the Inquiries Complaints and Reports Committee in 2014 after an investigation dating back to 2012 found his record-keeping did not meet college standards. He was ordered to use electronic record keeping. Price wrote he believes moving to an electronic record system will ease concerns of dating and signing in cases similar to his. Synergy Health Services' website lists Price as an assistant clinical professor, Division of Emergency Medicine, at McMaster University. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom