WHEELS TURN SLOWLY IN REPRIMANDING DOCTOR WHO ABUSED RULES

Justice delayed is justice denied, the saying goes. In the case of Dr. Bolivar Escobedo, who played fast and loose with medical regulations, justice is being denied his patients. Forty-four months passed between a seven-count complaint being filed against Escobedo and a finding being issued in his case earlier this month ... and more months will pass before any punishment is dispensed. Clearly, the wheels turn slowly when it comes to reprimanding doctors who don't observe the rules of their profession.

Ultimately, it matters little that Escobedo obtained a certain infamy in Cape Girardeau by opening and operating a practice that specialized in abortions. Regardless of where one stands on that issue, the fact remains that the doctor did not operate his clinic in a fashion consistent with standards of medical care. And approaching four years after a complaint reached the State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts -- and an incredible 10 years after one of the incidents cited in a complaint occurred -- Escobedo has not been punished. The state board that issued his license to practice medicine in Missouri has not revoked the privilege.

Granted, the investigation of medical complaints is a complicated business that people outside the profession probably can't fully grasp. It involves the privileged communication between the physician and patient and it must provide a certain latitude to the judgment of a trained professional. The challenge is to separate an isolated instance of bad judgment on the part of a doctor from a pattern of conduct that flies in the face of accepted standards.

Even to the layman, though, Escobedo undoubtedly failed to meet his obligations as a licensed physician. There is no dispute that the doctor performed abortions in his clinic during 1986 and 1987 when he had no surgical privileges or a transfer agreement with a local hospital. This is an explicit violation of professional conduct, something it should not take a panel of regulators years to mull over. The board also found that Escobedo knowingly violated regulations by not obtaining necessary licenses for operating an ambulatory surgical center and for not having the required registered nurse on hand for procedures. While Escobedo escaped on some of the counts, he established a distinct pattern of slipshod methods and circumvention of regulations.

Further, and what should be especially galling to the board, he sought to cover his misdeeds after the fact with excuses that hid his wrongful intent; the findings cited one particularly extravagant explanation as "imaginative but disingenuous." Yet, the case is not concluded; discipline is suggested, but not carried out.

Not only does that state board deny justice to the patients of Bolivar Escobedo by lingering in it considerations, it damages all doctors who take great pride in their profession and who go to great lengths to provide the best care to their patients. If the regulators want to take care of their own, they should act swiftly and decisively to run those who abuse their medical licenses out of the business.