This must be our week to report on healthcare providers who jeopardize their professional licenses by engaging in conduct resulting in privacy breaches. Earlier this week, PHIprivacy.net reported on the suspension of psychologist Dr. Sunil Kakar’s license. Today’s story is a follow-up to the case of a Solon, Ohio dentist who was charged with misusing his access to the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System (O.A.R.R.S.).
Dr. Fred S. Glick’s misuse of OARRS first came to light in the summer of 2012, months after his live-in girlfriend and former patient moved out of his home. “Melissa” (not her real name) informs PHIprivacy.net that she received an e-mail from him saying he had “GPSed” her. Confused by what that meant, but knowing that she had not given her new address to anyone other than her CVS pharmacy, she contacted the state pharmacy board to share her concerns. In January 2013, she received a telephone call from a pharmacy board investigator who reportedly confirmed that Dr. Glick had been accessing her information as well as information on her attorney (who had helped her move out of Dr. Glick’s home) and her current boyfriend. Neither of the two men had ever been a patient of Dr. Glick’s, and Melissa had not been treated at Dr. Glick’s office since approximately October 2011. There was seemingly no legitimate reason for him to be accessing information about any of them.
“When the investigator confirmed Fred had been creeping on me, despite having a feeling he was, I was very upset,” Melissa tells PHIprivacy.net. “All the time I’d tried to keep my current residence a secret, he knew where I was and I was afraid of him. He told me throughout our relationship that if/when I left him – he would ruin me. I had some idea that there would not be a clean break from him. So, yes I was fearful. When I initially left him, I obtained an emergency civil protection order based on documented experiences I had while we lived together. I really just wanted him out of my life. He promised my attorney that he would leave me alone so I dropped the protection order and the night I agreed to drop it, he tried to contact me.”
Although she reported him to the state pharmacy board, Melissa says she did not report him to the state dental board, and it is not known whether they have opened their own investigation into the misuse of the pharmacy database. As noted previously on PHIprivacy.net, Dr. Glick had entered into previous consent agreements with the board over other matters. There is nothing available online in the board’s minutes or his public file to indicate that they opened any investigation of him over the misuse of the pharmacy database. As a spokesperson for the dental board informs PHIprivacy.net, however, there would be no public record of any investigation (should there be one) until such time as the board offers a professional an opportunity to appear before the board, or the board is going to take some action or enter into a consent agreement with a professional. So Dr. Glick may – or may not be – currently under investigation by the state dental board.
On October 7, Dr. Glick pleaded guilty to misuse of the database, and on October 8, the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy issued a statement:
Solon, Ohio (Cuyahoga County) – On October 7, 2013, Ohio State Board of Pharmacy Executive Director Kyle Parker, announced that Dr. Fred S. Glick, 55, has entered into a plea agreement with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office for his misuse of the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System (O.A.R.R.S.).
The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy initiated an investigation in January 2013, after receiving a complaint that Dr. Glick allegedly ran an O.A.R.R.S. report inappropriately. As a result of the investigation, it was discovered that Dr. Glick accessed the O.A.R.R.S. database twenty one times and illegally obtained prescription data from the time period of February 2012 through December 2012. At the time he accessed the database, the person was not a patient of Dr. Glick. Therefore, he had no legal authority or reason to access the information.
A Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted Dr. Glick on April 16, 2013, on twenty-one felony counts of the misuse of the O.A.R.R.S. database. Prior to Dr. Glick’s trial scheduled on October 7, 2013, he entered a plea of guilty to only one felony count, and was subsequently sentenced to six months probation and ordered to pay a $2,500.00 fine.
As of today’s date, Dr. Glick’s license status as a dentist in Ohio still shows as “Active,” but as noted above, that does not mean that there is no ongoing investigation. And according to the board spokesperson, conviction of a felony may – or may not – result in loss of a professional license to practice. Melissa informs PHIprivacy.net that some members of the dental board were present in court when Dr. Glick pleaded guilty to the felony count, so we know they are aware of the misconduct and concerns. What, if anything, will they do now?
Update: Although PHIprivacy.net was unable to obtain a statement from Dr. Glick by the time of publication of this post, he subsequently sent a statement with his response, which is reproduced here.