Board of Directors Meeting--April 8, 1954 [ handwritten: 7 ]
Report of the Board of Censors--Dr. Rudolph--We finished up everything but 3 cases which are in the hopper but this [ crossed out: is ] a new one. The Kimball case against Schutzbank--question of excessive fees, but got word lately that the settlement was not satisfactory to Mr. Kimball.
Two that are fairly old and one brand new one that we have not acted on yet.
Dr. Bernstein--What is the mechanism in case you do not uphold him?
Dr. Rudolph--We have not upheld him on any of them--have asked him to cut his fees, and as far as we know, it seems like an endless chain of events with the same charge.
Dr. Carreras--How long can you let a man get away with this?
Dr. Bernstein--This brings up an important matter.
Dr. Rudolph--I would suggest that if you could get a really excellent speaker and talk to us about this sort of thing. Of course, Hugh Thompson, Bob Hastings, have talked to Schutzbank like a Dutch uncle, and whether it has done any good at all, I don't know? If you want to go into it, Schutzbank's point is this, and he has practiced for 35 years or so, [ crossed out: and he has ] is that now with the hormones and all, he cannot treat them as inexpensively as formerly.
Dr. Manning--Has your committee reached a point where it would be willing to make a recommendation to this Board ?
Dr. Bernstein--What happens if, to our knowledge, one of our members really bangs off in a manner that is improper or indecent, what do we do, sit and wait for a civilian to write in some complaint? What is the way to clean our own house?
Dr. Rudolph--It is right in the doctor's office where public relations is bad. The Committee is faced with one problem--that are 4 or 5 complaints against one guy--too many--as most of them there have been no complaints against--there are just a few that all the complaints are against.
Dr. Costin--In the first place you can write a letter that the committee disagrees with the fee and tell them not to pay it, and we will testify for them if they are sued.
Dr. Steen--You can recommend that he be censored before the Society and then if they do not pay you can suspend them from the Society and notify the hospitals.
Dr. Beaton--We went through this in the Lieberman case. The State Grievance Committee, by the Resolution which went through the House of Delegates, the Committee is allowed to take doctor-doctor complaints as well as patient-doctor relationships.
Dr. Carreras--I told Dr. Nagoda about it who was the one who complained. One morning I got a call early in the morning, I went to see her, and the husband was waiting for me at the door. The husband says--she has been taking Demerol and Dr. Nagoda has been trying to wean her out of the Demerol, and just recently I have received so many bills for $5.00 per telephone call.
Dr. Bernstein--A situation arose where Mathews became aware of a certain situation here is town so he was advised to notify us here at the office, and Mary took the call and he blew his top high and heavy. Now what to do? To call him back would be suicide.
Dr. Steen--Should be referred to Dr. Rudolph.
Dr. Bernstein--No, you are wrong--goes to Rudolph except it is not in writing--my point is we should investigate it ourselves and I called for an investigation. Now what to do if it turns out that one of our members did something bad or unethical from our standpoint? I wanted the investigation so that [ crossed out: Math ] when Mathews gets back from Russia we can say we looked into it. We should have some mechanism where we can look into some of these reports.
Dr. Steen--I think the Board of Censors will have to handle these things, if somebody calls up they will have to handle it--we can't have 4 or 5 different committees doing it.
Dr. Bernstein--I though that the Public Relations Committee should make up this charge.
Dr. Steen--This matter of the Schutzbank business, somebody brings up the question should we threaten not to support him if it goes to court. We should settle some of these ourselves without outside help. If we go against a member of the Society it will be a fine day. You can recommend this man be censored. That is warning him.
Dr. Rudolph--Are you going to censor every doctor that overcharges?
Dr. Beaton--Do you feel that they are overcharges?
Dr. Rudolph--Yes--We have censored him as a committee.
Dr. Bernstein--How long should this go on?
Dr. Manning--Mathews, I told Mary when she called, that I thought it was a matter for the Board of Censors. One Committee should do this from the standpoint of talking to
