BISMARCK --- A doctor who has operated vein clinics in Fargo, Grand Forks and Bismarck in North Dakota and in Detroit Lakes, Minn., has been suspended from the practice of medicine for having sexual relations with a nurse intern in his office while she was also his patient.
The North Dakota Board of Medical Examiners took action against the license of Dr. Roger Hogue on Friday, as well as three other doctors said Duane Houdek, executive secretary of the board.
The board suspended Hogue's license for a year but stayed eight months of the suspension provided he comply with certain conditions. He must complete a week-long assessment for "professionals in crisis" program at the Menninger Clinic, Houston, Texas, and comply with its recommendations for treatment or training. He also agreed to not examine or treat any female patient without the presence of a female nurse or other female attendant being present.
Hogue has operated Hogue Vein Institute in several cities. Houdek said Hogue is moving to open a practice in Maple Grove, Minn., and has closed his clinic in Bismarck.
Houdek said the incidents between Hogue and the intern-patient happened in late '04 and early '05. The board was notified in March 2006, he said. He would not say how the matter came to the board's attention.
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"Protection of the physician-patient relationship is essential if the public is to maintain its trust of the medical profession," Houdek said after the board meeting. "Breaching the relationship in this way simply will not be tolerated."
Hogue received a provisional license in North Dakota in 2004 and a regular license in 2005. He graduated medical school at Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., in 1992 and did his residency and further training at Stanford, Washington state and the University of Minnesota.
Hogue's attorney, Brenda Blazer of Bismarck, did not respond to a request for comment on the case, and Hogue has no home telephone listing in Minnesota or North Dakota.
In other action, the board indefinitely suspended the resident license of Dr. Kenneth Drews, a Bismarck medical resident who was completing his third year of residency at UND Family Medicine in Bismarck. Drews had a sexual relationship with a patient for approximately two weeks in December 2006, Houdek said. The UND center terminated Drews from the program and the board suspended his ability to practice in the state.
Houdek said Drews is "looking for opportunities to practice in other states."
The board also indefinitely suspended or revoked licenses of two out-of-state doctors with North Dakota licenses, Ronald Douglas of Virginia and Andrew Roque, Monterey Park, Calif.
Douglas was a resident at the UND Family Practice Center in Grand Forks from 1998-2001. He was suspended by the state of Virginia for stealing controlled substances and fraudulently obtaining hy-drocodone for his own use by writing and filling prescriptions written in the names of other people. He had been working in Virginia as a relief pharmacist. The North Dakota board acted because of the Virginia suspension.
Roque was audited by the North Dakota board to make sure he had completed a required number of hours of continuing medical education necessary to keep his license. He failed to respond to the board's requests for proof of attendance at required educational programs. After a hearing in February, a state administrative law judge recommended his North Dakota license be suspended indefinitely, and the board voted to do so Friday.
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