STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL ) REGULATION, BOARD OF MEDICAL ) EXAMINERS, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 82-2534

) AIDA MENDEZ RODRIGUEZ, M.D., )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, the Division of Administrative Hearings, by its duly designated Hearing Officer, Sharyn L. Smith, held a formal hearing in this case on March 18, 1983, in Miami, Florida. The following appearances were entered:

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Charlie L. Adams, Esquire

Department of Professional Regulation

130 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, Florida 32301

For Respondent: Aida Mendez Rodriguez, M.D., pro se

1300 North West 119th Street Miami, Florida 33167

The issue for determination at the final hearing was whether the medical license of the Respondent Rodriguez should be revoked, suspended, or otherwise disciplined for allegedly being falsely and/or fraudulently obtained.

At the final hearing, Brooks C. Harle, an investigator with the Department of Professional Regulation, Dr. Ishmael Hernandez, M.D., and Dr. Mario A. Soler, M.D., testified for the Petitioner Department. Petitioner's Exhibits 1 and 2 were offered and admitted into evidence 1/. The Respondent Rodriguez testified on her own behalf.

At the close of the hearing, the Respondent Rodriguez was given an opportunity to obtain counsel for purposes of filing a Proposed Recommended Order. 2/ To date, no Proposed Recommended Orders have been received from either of the parties in this proceeding.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The Respondent Aida Mendez Rodriguez is a licensed medical doctor, having been issued license number ME 0030121. The last known address of the Respondent is 1300 N.W. 119th Street, Miami, Florida 33167.

2. On March 9, 1977, the Respondent was initially licensed by the Petitioner Florida Board of Medical Examiners. Her licensure was based on an application for examination filed with the Petitioner Board on or about February 13, 1975. The application was signed and sworn to before a notary public. The Respondent acknowledged "carefully" reading the questions in the application and answering them "completely, without reservations of any kind", and declared under penalty of perjury that the answers and all statements made therein were true and correct. Further, the Respondent agreed that if any false information was furnished in the application, any such act would constitute cause for the suspension or revocation of her license to practice medicine in Florida. (See Petitioner's Exhibit No. 1)

   
   

3. In the 1975 application, Petitioner's Exhibit No. 1, the Respondent Rodriguez stated that her medical education occurred at the University of Havana, Cuba, and her degree in medicine was obtained in Cuba in October, 1953.

   
   

4. The Respondent's application listed her residency or postgraduate training at a hospital emergency room from 1940 to 1961. This training included the "Emergency Hospital of Havana, Cuba, 1953 to 1968, and Calixto Garcia Hospital (Residency), 1954 to 1957, IM and GP." See Petitioner's Exhibit 1.

   
   

5. The Respondent Rodriguez listed on her application two physicians, Rolando Pozo, M.D. and Mario Soler, M.D., with whom she worked in Havana, as her recommending physicians.

   
   

6. Neither Dr. Soler nor Dr. Pozo had any personal knowledge that the Respondent Rodriguez practiced medicine in Cuba during the years listed on the application.

   
   

7. Moreover, the information furnished by the Respondent on her application regarding the chronology and dates of her practice and/or employment in Cuba, conflicted with the Respondent's testimony at final hearing that she did not practice medicine in Cuba after 1959.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

8. The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the parties and subject matter of this dispute. Section 120.57(1), Florida Statutes.

   
   

9. By six count Administrative Complaint, the Respondent Rodriguez is charged with violating Sections 458.1201(1)(a), (b), (h) and (m), Florida Statutes (1975), 458.327(2)(c), 458.331(1)(x) and 458.331(1)(a), Florida Statutes (1981), by furnishing false, misleading, deceptive and untrue information to obtain a license to practice medicine in Florida.

   
   

10. Sections 458.1201(1)(a), (b), (h) and (m), Florida Statutes (1975), which empower the Board of Medical Examiners to take disciplinary action against a licensee found guilty of violating their prohibitions, provide in pertinent part as follows:

    
    

    1. Failing to demonstrate the quali- fications or standards for a license con- tained in this chapter or rules and regula- tions of the board, in which proceeding the burden of proof shall be upon the applicant.

    2. ...practicing fraud or deceit in obtaining a license to practice medicine;...

       (h) Engaging in any unethical, deceptive, or deleterious conduct or practice harmful to the public, in which proceeding proof of actual injury need not be established.

       (m) Being guilty of immoral or unpro- fessional conduct, incompetence, negligence, or willful misconduct....

       
       

11. The Petitioner Department has established by clear and convincing evidence that the Respondent's application contained misleading and untrue statements concerning her professional experience in Cuba. The documentation furnished by the Respondent Rodriguez to the Board to demonstrate that she practiced medicine in Cuba and thereby obtain licensure in Florida, was knowingly deceptive and erroneous, in that she listed doctors with whom she worked in Cuba and dates of practice which she knew or should have known to be incorrect. Under such circumstances, the Respondent is guilty of violating Sections 458.1201(1)(a), (b), (h) and (m), Florida Statutes (1975). 3/

RECOMMENDATION

Based on the foregoing findings of fact and conclusions of law, it is RECOMMENDED:

That a Final Order be entered, indefinitely suspending the medical license of the Respondent Rodriguez until verifiable evidence is presented to the Board of Medical Examiners which establish that the Respondent meets the statutory and rule criteria for licensure as a physician.

DONE and ENTERED this 9th day of September, 1983, in Tallahassee, Florida.

SHARYN L. SMITH, Hearing Officer Division of Administrative Hearings The Oakland Building

2009 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

(904) 488-9675

Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 9th day of September, 1983.

ENDNOTES

1/ Petitioner's Exhibit 3, the Affidavit of Dr. Hernandez, was not offered into evidence at the final hearing.

2/ On July 8, 1983, an order was entered requiring the Respondent to inform the Hearing Officer within seven (7) days whether counsel would be obtained. No response was filed by the Respondent Rodriguez to this order and, accordingly, it is presumed that the Respondent elected not to retain counsel.

3/ The Administrative Complaint also charges the Respondent Rodriguez with violating Sections 458.327(2)(c), 458.331(1)(x) and 458.331(1)(a), Florida Statutes (1981). These statutes were not in existence when the application in question was filed and, accordingly, the Respondent cannot be found to have violated the prohibitions contained therein.

COPIES FURNISHED:

Charlie L. Adams, Esquire Department of Professional

Regulation

130 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Aida Mendez Rodriguez 1300 N.W. 119th Street Miami, Florida 33167

Frederick Roche, Secretary Department of Professional

Regulation

130 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Dorothy Faircloth, Executive Director Florida Board of Medical Examiners

130 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Docket for Case No: 82-002534

Orders for Case No: 82-002534