The Iowa Board of Medicine asserts that physician Josh Smith, DO, failed to provide nine patients with adequate surgical care over the course of five years beginning in 2008, according to a Daily Times Herald report.
Dr. Smith, a general surgeon, disagrees with the board's findings, but has agreed to settle.
The board rebuked Dr. Smith for not properly recognizing or treating injuries his patients allegedly suffered during surgery. In one case, a boy whose appendix Dr. Smith was attempting to remove incurred lacerations to his intestines and aorta. A lawsuit filed by the child's parents alleged the boy suffered significant internal bleeding and nearly died. The lawsuit also claimed the child was not diagnosed until the day after the procedure, when he was taken to the hospital via ambulance. The suit was eventually dismissed, and the status of a monetary settlement in this case was not specified.
As a result of the settlement with the board, Dr. Smith must pay a $5,000 civil penalty and participate in a practice monitoring plan — including supervision by another physician — for five years. The monitoring physician must provide written reports four times a year to the board of medicine and must contact the board immediately if there is evidence of substandard care.
In a separate case that was not cited by the board of medicine, a former patient of Dr. Smith's alleged that said physician erroneously removed her thyroid in 2012 because he thought it was cancerous. It was not. The former patient alleges this faulty surgery was the result of a dearth of adequate pre-op testing by her physician. This most recent case will go to trial in June.
Dr. Smith practiced in Manning, Ida Grove and Carroll, Iowa.
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