discipline summaries
DR. VIJAY SHARMA
Practice Location: Toronto
Practice Area: Anesthesiology
Hearing Information: Admission, Statement of Agreed
Facts on Finding and Penalty, Joint Submission on
Penalty
On September 24, 2014, the Discipline Committee
found that Dr. Sharma committed acts of professional
misconduct, in that he failed to maintain the standard
of practice of the profession; and he engaged in an act
or omission relevant to the practice of medicine that,
having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably
be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable
or unprofessional. Dr. Sharma admitted to the allegations.
The College commenced an investigation into Dr.
Sharma’s practice in about July 2012, after it received
information that raised concerns about Dr. Sharma’s
anesthesiology practice. Dr. X, the independent expert
retained by the College, reviewed 26 patient charts and
found that Dr. Sharma failed to meet the standard of
practice in the following respects:
• His record-keeping fell below the standard of care in
respect of eight patients.
• In respect of Patient A, although Dr. Sharma monitored this intubated patient in the PACU over the
course of a 31 minute period, he failed to properly
hand over care to the on-call anesthesiologist prior to
leaving the hospital.
• In respect of Patient B, an elderly patient who was
undergoing an urgent repair of a hip fracture and was
found on preliminary echo study to have moderate
aortic stenosis and insufficiency, Dr. Sharma administered spinal anesthesia but did not place an arterial
line, which would have permitted close hemodynamic
monitoring.
• In respect of Patient C who was assessed as having a
potentially difficult airway, Dr. Sharma intubated the
patient by administering a long-acting muscle relaxant
(rocuronium) instead of a shor XX