Series: Corruption in The
Maryland Board of Physicians
and The Maryland Health
Department
Maryland’s Health
Department Corrupt then and now Article One Doctor Lois Leonard
By Mark Davis, MD
Journalist, Author, Media Consultant
Decades may pass yet
corrupt government entities linger. Unaccountable to no one their appointed
soldiers march through time with the venomous bite of institutionalized
authority destroying the very framework they are supposed to oversee. One such
designee was Doctor Lois Leonard. Her horrific death from cancer in 1993 does
not excuse her of actions in which she was involved several years earlier.
Doctor Leonard was
empowered to cite nursing homes for inadequacies in nursing and physician care
by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (now the Maryland
Health Department). No medical or surgical case was too complex for Doctor
Leonard to critique. Doctor Leonard’s questionable reviews came under scrutiny
when she cited the Poplar Manor Nursing Home.
Mark Davis MD purchased
the Poplar Manor Nursing Home with 12 investors, most of them Doctors, in
August of 1989 after being the facility’s medical director for 8 years. Amongst
the investors were two surgeons who provided the surgical care to the home’s
residents. They were responsible for a range of treatments including decubitus
care. Additionally, the facility enlisted the aid of a neurologist, an
endocrinologist, offsite care with a cardiologist, two podiatrists visited
regularly, a dermatologist and several other medical consultants. Dr. Leonard
believed she was capable of critiquing this collective set of professionals.
Antithetically she turned out to be a CHARLATAN, hired by the Maryland Health Department,
which was more worried with its public image than the people they claimed to
help. Carol Benner, Dr. Leonard’s immediate supervisor, bathed in the glow of
the negative reports her Doctor and staff generated, by releasing these reports
to the media before the nursing home in question received them, in this case
Poplar Manor. Worse Benner’s office was aware Poplar Manor was on a track to
lose its certification as a viable nursing facility, yet withheld this
information from the prospective owners, though requested by their attorneys
prior to sale.
Poplar Manor was under
siege by the Health Department’s division of Long-Term care from the day it
transferred ownership. Documentary evidence has come into the possession of
this journalist displaying clearly Poplar Manor was in the Health Department’s
sights for closure. Perhaps the reason Ms. Benner’s office withheld this
documentary evidence was the prior ownership included Phillip Greene, a former
high ranking official in the Maryland Health Department. Once Mr. Greene
received his money for the facility in August of 1989 Dr. Leonard and her team came
in full force placing the facility on a 90 track to closure. We can only venture
a guess how deep the relationship was between the government officials managing
the nursing home review and Mr. Greene.
Maryland Department of Long-Term
care refused, several times, to provide Dr. Leonard’s resume. In a case filed
with the United States District Court of Maryland, Civil No. MJG-93-1242 Dr.
Leonard provided an affidavit to the court. In that affidavit it was clear why
her credentials were withheld. Dr. Leonard did not have the abilities or
training to survey the physicians she was tasked with reviewing. She did not
have the appropriate skills in Internal Medicine or Surgery even for the most
basic review. In more restrain tones she was a shill for the Maryland Office of
Long-Term care. On her written and or oral word nursing homes, such as Poplar
Manor, were forced to close. In the event a physician filed a complaint regarding
Dr. Leonard’s dubious reports, more shills would follow behind her, as was the
case with Poplar Manor.
Obsessed with closing Poplar
Manor Dr. Leonard fabricated several reports claiming the care in the facility
was horrific. To justify her baseless reviews two more shills were brought in
from University of Maryland to cover her tracks, Drs. Timothy Keay and George
Taler. Neither physician had the intensity of training to perform in depth nursing
home reviews. Their actions will be discussed in article 2 of this series along
with material misrepresentations made by them.
Dr. Lois Leonard’s fraudulent
reports display a person who was not qualified to place a band aid on a
patient. Yet these reports gave the State of Maryland ammunition to close Poplar
Manor Nursing Home after state operatives fleeced its bank accounts, forced the
dismissal of nearly 200 employees, displaced 157 nursing home residents and crushed
the careers of many including this author. Ironically after the state fed false
news reports to the media, in an effort smear its ownership, there were no malpractice
suits filed against the home, it’s staff of physicians or this author. The
question which this author has the answer to is: Who in the State of Maryland
Hierarchy was behind this concerted effort to destroy a viable nursing
facility? Follow this series to receive the startling answer.
Mark Davis, MD
