Arkansas VA Pathologist Charged in Deaths of 3 Patients

[Napoleon1801]

Former VA pathologist charged in deaths of 3 veterans

Federal prosecutors say Dr. Robert Levy showed up for work impaired, misdiagnosed patients and falsified records to cover up his errors

www.cbsnews.com

Interesting read:

"A pathologist fired from an Arkansas veterans hospital after officials said he had been impaired while on duty was charged Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of three patients. Authorities say he misdiagnosed them and altered their records to try to conceal his mistakes. "

"Levy, 53, who worked at the Veterans health Care System of the Ozarks in Fayetteville, was paid an annual salary of $225,000, according to the indictment. He was fired from the hospital in April 2018. VA officials said in January that outside pathologists reviewed nearly 34,000 cases handled by Levy and found more than 3,000 errors or missed diagnoses dating back to 2005. "

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[Alteran]

It seems to me his real sin in all this was altering and falsifying the medical QA records and showing up to work impaired. His mistakes of missing a malignant diagnosis and/or making a diagnosis of a different type of cancer while both not good in general, happen. Being at the VA, the government malpractice lawyers would have handled that without any issue. I will say though that a nearly 9% error rate is quite scary. But as they say, good enough for government work.

 

[octopusprime]

The VA doesn't attract the cream of the crop...they are jobs born out of necessity of location/convenience or necessity of employment. And one has to be content working in an antiquated technological & diagnostic system where there is little if any power to change things, particularly other lab employees.

 

[Dro133]

Semi-related, but these seem like the type of cases where AI assistance could be really useful.

"In the deaths, Levy is accused of falsifying entries in his patients' records after making incorrect and misleading diagnoses. In one case, a patient died of prostate cancer after Levy determined that his biopsy showed he didn't have cancer, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors say a second patient died of squamous cell carcinoma after Levy misdiagnosed the patient with another form of carcinoma. In a third case, the indictment says, a patient with small cell carcinoma was treated for a type of cancer he didn't have following an incorrect diagnosis by Levy, and died."

 

[acurax]

Semi-related, but these seem like the type of cases where AI assistance could be really useful.

How so?

 

[Unty]

How so?

In case you wake up and have that urge to take 2-methyl-2-butanol, AI can help screen cases for you so you don’t entirely misdiagnose lol

 

[Alteran]

In case you wake up and have that urge to take 2-methyl-2-butanol, AI can help screen cases for you so you don’t entirely misdiagnose lol

Sounds logical....

 

[Dro133]

How so?

I imagine it could potentially catch some things that pathologists might miss. I mean, not all pathologists are going to have a 10% misdiagnosis rate like this guy, but even if that rate is something like 1% for the average pathologist maybe it could still be useful. Who knows.

 

[acurax]

I imagine it could potentially catch some things that pathologists might miss. I mean, not all pathologists are going to have a 10% misdiagnosis rate like this guy, but even if that rate is something like 1% for the average pathologist maybe it could still be useful. Who knows.

Maybe...I think it is more likely the AI will over call malignancy or entirely miss critical components of cases. Probably resulting in flagging a ton of items for review by a human.

 

[Napoleon1801]

The VA doesn't attract the cream of the crop...they are jobs born out of necessity of location/convenience or necessity of employment. And one has to be content working in an antiquated technological & diagnostic system where there is little if any power to change things, particularly other lab employees.

A decade worth of training just to work at an Arkansas VA...

 

[MetroPath]

Yeah sucks. I know someone double board certified (heme and cyto) working in the VA. All that hard work to make 200k in the VA. That’s the state of the pathology job market.

You may have to take what you can get if you want to be in a certain location. There may not be other jobs available in a particular location.

 

[LADoc00]

The VA doesn't attract the cream of the crop...they are jobs born out of necessity of location/convenience or necessity of employment. And one has to be content working in an antiquated technological & diagnostic system where there is little if any power to change things, particularly other lab employees.

Funny you say this, I was just thinking of looking into cush VA job in a rural area in case my state goes completely south. Just poking around, it was like 400K/yr in a place where I could buy a 12000 SF house for 800K so I was sold.

 

[octopusprime]

Funny you say this, I was just thinking of looking into cush VA job in a rural area in case my state goes completely south. Just poking around, it was like 400K/yr in a place where I could buy a 12000 SF house for 800K so I was sold.

The VA doesn't attract the cream of the crop*...they are jobs born out of necessity of location/convenience or necessity of employment. And one has to be content working in an antiquated technological & diagnostic system where there is little if any power to change things, particularly other lab employees.

*though it is occasionally sought after by upper echelon demigods in a ramp-down towards their retirement after having already secured financial security and inner peace.

 

[yaah]

I find it hard to believe he could be convicted of anything like murder or even manslaughter. I don't think those charges will stick.

But the whole story is horrifying. How does a patient know that the pathologist on their report isn't a guy like this?

 

[LADoc00]

The VA doesn't attract the cream of the crop*...they are jobs born out of necessity of location/convenience or necessity of employment. And one has to be content working in an antiquated technological & diagnostic system where there is little if any power to change things, particularly other lab employees.

*though it is occasionally sought after by upper echelon demigods in a ramp-down towards their retirement after having already secured financial security and inner peace.

No question the VA doesnt attract the cream of the crop, Im fairly certain the bottom of the barrel is more typical BUT BUT in the Land of the Blind Men, LADOC is God-King....

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

I have CAP inspected some pretty sorry VA labs over the years. The labs were way overstaffed for the amount of work they did. One place I did like 5 years ago had two pathologists and barely had 3000 tissue cases plus a small amount of cytology work.