DISCIPLINE SUMMARIES
artist, attended a“ life drawing class” with the family. Life drawing classes involve drawing a person from observation of a live nude model. While socializing with Patient B, Dr. Maal-Bared shared information with her about her personal life and marital issues, gave Patient B skincare oil and some clothes she no longer wore. She also commissioned a piece of work from Patient A, which she paid for but ultimately decided not to accept. Dr. Maal-Bared and Patient B regularly exchanged emails and used nicknames for each other. While Dr. Maal-Bared was her physician, Dr. Maal- Bared hired Patient B as her administrative and personal assistant. Patient A and Patient C were aware of and did not object to this arrangement. Patient B’ s administrative work provided her with access to Dr. Maal-Bared ' s patients ' medical records. Patient B’ s responsibilities included organizing patient records and creating a database of patient contact information. Dr. Maal-Bared was aware that Patient B was working on a database of patient contact information from home and had made copies of patient contract information sheets. Dr. Maal-Bared’ s position is that she had no knowledge and did not permit Patient B to remove medical records from her office. As Dr. Maal-Bared’ s personal assistant, Patient B worked in Dr. Maal-Bared’ s home, including organizing her closet, and helped Dr. Maal-Bared with personal errands, such as once driving her to the veterinarian. Dr. Maal-Bared also hired Patient A to clean her office on a number of occasions. Patient B arranged for Patient C to purchase a computer for Dr. Maal-Bared and install software on it. Patient C also took professional photographs of Dr. Maal- Bared. Dr. Maal-Bared hired Patient B’ s sister to move a desk for her. At Dr. Maal-Bared’ s request, as part of her administrative work, Patient B arranged to have her father who lived in the U. S. and sister pick up art work that Dr. Maal-Bared had ordered. Patient B’ s sister brought it across the U. S. border to Toronto for Dr. Maal-Bared. Dr. Maal-Bared later asked her father to pick up the artwork from the family’ s home. Dr. Maal-Bared attended in person at a hospital with the family when Patient B’ s nephew became ill to advocate for his admission.
By the end of May 2012, Dr. Maal-Bared’ s relationship with the family broke down, at which time Dr. Maal-Bared apologized to Patient B, and acknowledged that the situation was Dr. Maal-Bared’ s fault and that if they wanted to make a complaint to address their concerns, she would cooperate. In May 2014, the family sent letters of complaint to the College. In her response to the family’ s complaints, Dr. Maal-Bared acknowledged that she had compromised professional boundaries by developing a personal and employment relationships with the family.
Dr. Maal-Bared took steps to remediate her behaviour by completing courses in medical ethics, boundaries, medical record-keeping and opioid prescribing. On March 6, 2017, Dr. Maal-Bared signed an undertaking with the College agreeing to: practise under the guidance of a Clinical Supervisor acceptable to the College for at least six months; be reassessed at the completion of the clinical supervision; be monitored and cooperate with unannounced inspections of her practice and patient records.
ORDER The Committee ordered: a four-month suspension of Dr. Maal-Bared’ s certificate of registration; a reprimand and payment to the College of costs of $ 5,500.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Dr. Maal-Bared waived her right to an appeal and the Committee administered the public reprimand.
DR. EJAZ AHMED GHUMMAN
PRACTICE LOCATION: Leamington AREA OF PRACTICE: General Surgery
HEARING INFORMATION: Plea of No Contest; Statement of Uncontested Facts on Liability; Joint Submission on Penalty
On July 21, 2017, the Discipline Committee found that Dr. Ghumman committed an act of professional misconduct in that he failed to maintain the standard of practice of the profession. Dr. Ghumman is a general surgeon. From 2007, Dr. Ghumman was a Chief of Staff at a hospital, but
68
DIALOGUE ISSUE 2, 2018