Doctor indicted under Michigan adult abuse law for recklessness

The physician denies the charges; his attorney says criminal accusations tied to medical procedures are "one heck of a burden" on doctors.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Aug. 27, 2001.

An Ann Arbor, Mich., surgeon is facing felony charges for the way he tended to wounds on three nursing home patients.

The state charged Frank Paul Bongiorno, MD, with three counts of second-degree vulnerable adult abuse for care he provided to patients at Pembrook Nursing Center and Moroun Nursing Home, both in Detroit.

Dr. Bongiorno says he hasn't done anything wrong and doesn't understand why the state would choose to file criminal charges against him for medical procedures he performed.

He is believed to be the first physician charged under Michigan's 4-year-old law designed to protect senior citizens. But it is becoming more common for local authorities to charge a physician with a felony in connection with patient care.

In June, a California jury found an internist guilty of elder abuse for undertreating a patient's pain. And experts don't see the climate changing.

"Prosecution of physicians is going to be a local matter," said health lawyer Harvey Tettlebaum, a partner at Husch & Eppenberger in Jefferson City, Mo. "Physicians as a group need to be mindful of the politics that exist in their jurisdiction and keep their finger to the wind to see which way it is blowing."

In Dr. Bongiorno's case, guardians of a patient in one of the nursing homes contacted the state concerning the care the physician was providing.

The Michigan attorney general's office investigated it as it would any other complaint made about the care given to an older adult, said Donald Allen, a Michigan assistant attorney general. [...]