84-year-old doctor who refused to keep electronic records fails to regain licence
An 84-year-old doctor has been forced to surrender her medical licence after allegations of misconduct. She wondered if her refusal to keep electronic records has played a part in a judge denying her request to regain her licence to practice.
Dr Anna Konopka was a licensed medical practitioner for 55 years who used to work in an office in New London, New Hampshire in the US. She does not know how to use a computer. "Because electronic medicine is for the system, not for the patients,” she said, according to CNN.
Konopka did not have much technology in her workplace aside from a landline phone and fax machine. Konopka’s typewriter was broken, its parts discontinued. Originally from Poland, Konopka would keep patient records in two file cabinets. These records were meticulously handwritten.
Her style of doctoring attracted various types of patients. Some have complicated conditions such as chronic pain, while some did not have insurance. She attended to these patients until she was forced to let go of her medical licence.
“The (electronic) system right now, with this opioid war, they have no common sense with what they’re doing,” she said. Konopka added that she prescribes only a small amount of OxyContin and they are doing “beautifully.”
The New Hampshire Board of Medicine officials challenged the doctor’s prescribing practices, record-keeping and medical decision-making, court documents states. Konopka was reportedly accused of failing to treat a young girl with daily inhaled steroids and leaving the dosage levels of medication up to her parent.
But Konopka supposedly argued that the girl’s mother ignored her instructions. The board could not release or discuss further details about the investigation, which is already closed, as mandated by state law. According to court documents, the board’s medical review subcommittee obtained further complaints against Konopka after she surrendered her licence.
Doctors have been encouraged to get better training in prescribing opioids. In 2015, over 16,000 people died of overdoses from prescription opioids, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
All states except Missouri have come up with a prescription drug monitoring program. Most of those systems mandate some form of action by prescribers.
In July, the government reported that the number of opioid prescriptions written by health-care providers dropped between 2012 and 2015. Officials said it is an indication of progress in curbing the worst drug epidemic in US history.
