Medical board appointees don’t let malpractice lawsuits get them down

Gov. Jim Gibbons’ recent appointee to a seat on the Board of Osteopathic Medicine had three malpractice cases in the 1990s in which his insurance company paid out settlements, including one in which a woman died. Two additional malpractice cases are pending.

Dr. Scott Manthei’s malpractice history didn’t pose a problem for Gibbons, who went ahead and appointed the osteopath to the board, where he now sits in judgment of other doctors.

Manthei’s brother is Dr. Rudy Manthei, former chairman of the same board, one of the governor’s health advisers and a leader in changing the state’s medical malpractice laws.

Scott Manthei is an ear, nose and throat doctor, with offices in Henderson, who has been licensed in Nevada since 1989. His first board meeting was March 24. His malpractice information had been misplaced at the Board of Osteopathic Medicine, but he recently reviewed his malpractice history with me.

In 1991, he settled a well-publicized case involving Sharon Tiberi, a 31-year-old teacher who died following laser surgery on her sinuses. He didn’t have the exact figure but said the settlement was within the $1 million policy limit.

In 1994 and 1995, he settled two more malpractice cases involving children, one for about $100,000, another for $600,000. One involved tonsils, another adenoids.

There are two additional malpractice cases pending that he cannot discuss at this time.

Manthei never has been disciplined by the Board of Osteopathic Medicine. He said he’s never had hospital privileges revoked or suspended. (He apparently forgot the brief two-week suspension of his privileges in a North Las Vegas hospital following the teacher’s death in 1991.)

He recently withdrew his application for privileges at Southern Hills Hospital, which is relatively unusual. The hospital didn’t provide any details, but Manthei said his withdrawal was not related to any question of patient care.

He said most of his surgeries are at St. Rose Dominican and University Medical Center.

He doesn’t believe three malpractice settlements in 17 years are excessive, and perhaps he’s correct.

Although I don’t know Manthei, friends say he’s a wonderful doctor. And that may be 100 percent true. In today’s litigious society, three settled malpractice cases and two pending might not be excessive.

But without the last name Manthei, would someone with that malpractice history, someone whose patient dies, be the best choice for a regulatory position in this time when the medical community is fighting to restore its credibility?

“Three cases are not a problem to the point where he wouldn’t be considered qualified,” Gibbons’ spokesman Ben Kieckhefer said, adding that the board’s executive director, Dr. Larry Tarno, said Manthei would be “a solid appointment.”

I checked out the other members of the board, and none has malpractice cases, according to the board’s Web site. Then, out of fairness, I checked out the doctors on the Board of Medical Examiners.

• Dr. Javaid Anwar, an internist, had one $10,000 malpractice settlement.

• Dr. Sohail Anjum, a cardiologist, had three. One in 1996 settled for $400,000. Another in 1996 settled for $700,000 and a third in 2000 for $50,000.

• Dr. Dan McBride, a surgeon, had one in 1992 for $36,000.

• Drs. Charles Held, Cindy Lamerson and Benjamin Rodriguez had no malpractice settlements or judgments.

Now, these were not Gibbons’ appointees; they were appointed before his time. So, clearly, a malpractice settlement, or two, or three, doesn’t disqualify someone from serving on a medical board.

The three temporary board members Gibbons appointed for the endoscopy center investigation include Drs. Ronald Kline and Beverly Neyland, with no malpractice settlements, and Robert Weincek, a heart surgeon, who has four — two in 1995 for $10,000 and $425,000; one in 1998 for $350,000; and one in 2001 for $60,000.

Dr. Scott Manthei might be a great board member. That remains to be seen.

But with the crisis of confidence created by the hepatitis C outbreak, perhaps a wiser choice for the governor might have been an osteopath who didn’t have any malpractice settlements.

Perhaps someone who doesn’t look as if he was juiced into the job because of his big brother, Rudy Manthei.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275.