Patient not patiently waiting for notification about medical device

A former patient of Dr. Michael Kaplan — whose medical license was suspended last month for reusing single-use-only medical devices — believes the process of notifying patients that they should be tested for blood-borne diseases is infected with incompetence.

Or laziness. Or inefficiency. Or by a "who gives a damn" attitude.

"I get the feeling that they’re relying way too much on what the doctor tells them," said Bill Looney

Looney has yet to get a notification letter even though he received a prostate biopsy from the urologist within the December to early March time frame when authorities say Kaplan admits to a breach of infection control.

If, as Looney suspects, health officials are taking the physician’s word for the number of patients he might have infected, that makes no sense to him.

"It’s like the fox guarding the henhouse," he said.

After the medical board suspended the Las Vegas urologist’s license for reusing single-use devices during prostate biopsies, the Southern Nevada Health District notified 101 of his patients that they should get tested for HIV and hepatitis.

But not Looney.

He said he called the health district and was told that they got the names for the notification letters from the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners.

"I was told to call the board, so I did," he said.

Looney, who is the senior director of construction at The Cosmopolitan , said he was then told by the board’s general counsel that Kaplan’s list of patients was "incomplete" and that an updated list soon would be sent from the board to the health district .

"Nothing has happened yet," Looney said Wednesday.

Health district spokeswoman Stephanie Bethel told the Review-Journal that she expects about 10 more names to come from the board.

When?

"Soon," she said.

Doug Cooper, the medical examiner board’s executive director, said that he is aware of Looney’s situation and that he should have gotten, or should be getting, a notification letter.

Cooper said the board did not rely on Kaplan’s word about which patients were at risk after procedures in which authorities said the doctor only stopped reusing needle guides when they became "too bloody."

Cooper said the board investigators have gone through records several different ways, including by name, billing code and type of procedure.

Investigators are using the same procedure to go through records of Dr. Lawrence Newman, Cooper said.

When Newman learned that the FDA and the Nevada State Medical Board sanctioned Kaplan in early March for reusing single-use needle guides during prostate biopsies, he reported himself to the board and began notifying his patients, Cooper said.

But Cooper said the board isn’t relying just on the word of Newman, who says only 150 patients are at risk over a three-year period from his incorrect use of medical devices. "We’re still gathering information," Cooper said.

How long that information may take to get to patients is what concerns Looney, who went ahead and got his blood tested without the notification letter.

"People need to get this information as soon as possible," he said. "There’s no excuse for this inefficiency. We already know we can’t trust the doctors. People’s lives could be at stake. That concerns me. … I called the health district again and they said the reason the letters hadn’t gone out was because somebody was off that day."

While Looney said it’s possible he could die if he held his breath waiting for his notification letter, he said at least he doesn’t have to worry about dying from blood-borne diseases anytime soon.

"I tested negative for both HIV and hepatitis," he said.

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.