NewsStateState-Ohio

Actions

Medical board taking longer to review sex misconduct cases

Posted at 8:19 AM, Nov 19, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-19 08:19:30-05

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The State Medical Board of Ohio says it will need to work past an original February deadline to finish reviewing about 2,000 closed cases of alleged sexual misconduct or impropriety by doctors.

The board is trying to determine whether any of those cases from the past 25 years involved evidence of criminal misconduct that was ignored. Board officials say they’ve had trouble recruiting enough victim advocates and former prosecutors for that work.

The Columbus Dispatch reports the board’s president, Dr. Michael Schottenstein, now expects the review to stretch through May or June.

It launched the review after learning such evidence was ignored in a 1996 investigation involving Richard Strauss, the late Ohio State University team doctor now accused of abusing young men for two decades without ever facing discipline.