Renowned Doctor Exposed As Fraud

BU Medical Sciences
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Phil Dunphy

Phil Dunphy

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2009
Messages
205
Reaction score
0
WOW. Honestly, I have no idea how something like this goes unnoticed for so long. Maybe he was just so well respected that no one even bothered to ask about credentials or where he went to school or anything? Dunno, but that's nuts.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
That hospital is less than an hour from me. Maybe I'll slap a few letters behind my name on my resume and apply for a job :smuggrin:
 
If a guy without a medical degree can stay employed as a physician for that long, then I have a very distinguished career ahead of me dispensing marijuana at the medical spa I'll be opening when I finish residency.

While this speaks poorly of his ethics, it says something else about his ability to hobknob and present himself well.
 
This just wreaks of "Catch Me If You Can!"
 
I remember a school administrator... like a president or dean, who didn't have any degree or qualification, yet had written a few books and would lecture on professional integrity. I can see how you could easily maintain a reputation, but I'm not sure how you get one to begin with.
 
the medical folks I've spoken with so far up here in Michigan in my little corner of the world are floored.

Doesn't say much for the hospital, does it? hire someone without background check?
 
ShyRem said:
the medical folks I've spoken with so far up here in Michigan in my little corner of the world are floored.

Doesn't say much for the hospital, does it? hire someone without background check?
Click to expand...

I guess not. And this is the hospital affiliated with the newest med school here in MI... Hopefully they're a little better at choosing their faculty.
 
Cheshyre said:
I'm actually not that shocked. Some kid did the same thing a while ago. He somehow managed to fabricate transcripts from Harvard and some other top institution and got into some high positions with it.

Edit: Here it is! http://voices.washingtonpost.com/campus-overload/2010/05/former_harvard_student_accused.html
Click to expand...

Think about what an asset that guy could be if he put his obvious talents to good use. What a waste. Impressive, but a waste.

My grandfather used to own a bunch of rental properties and one day a guy, who was late on rent, booked it and we had to go change the locks and clean out the place. Among the biggest, most repulsive mess I'd ever seen in my life, we found a bunch of degrees from very prestigious universities - particularly Harvard. Well, some were awful looking, and some were really good, and after some digging we found out that the guy made these fake Harvard (and who knows what else) degrees for people. Don't know who they fooled, and this was back before awesome computer stuff, so definitely interesting to see a guy like this seriously fool the system.
 
ShyRem said:
the medical folks I've spoken with so far up here in Michigan in my little corner of the world are floored.

Doesn't say much for the hospital, does it? hire someone without background check?
Click to expand...


It sounds like this guy got his in back in '92 when the background checks weren't nearly as rigorous as they are now, plus it was a private hospital which added to the reduction in rigor of the background check. I guess he got grandfathered in. It is crazy that he got away for it for so long though.

This makes me question his pilot credentials as well, because United would be crazy to say this guy didn't have a legal pilots license, because that would put them right in line for some serious litigious action for putting thousands of lives at risk.

Wowza. Crazy crazy story.
 
The local hospital here in Fayetteville, NC just had an incident like this. A guy had fake credentials from the University of Tennessee and was hired as an ER doc. He actually began orientation and had treated some patients in the ER. He also spent time riding with the hospital owned 9-1-1 EMS service as was treating patients. They didn't get around to checking his credentials for over a month. Once they found out, he was arrested. However, he posted bail and then skipped town. The only way they knew he left town was after a taxi driver called the police and told them that some young kid got into his taxi and told him that he was a doctor and that he needed to pick up a patient and have them transported to TN. When they covered the story on the local news, they had a big picture of him standing in front of a local ambulance wearing the EMS uniform that was issued to him. It was definitely a blow the hospital.
For those interested, here's a link to the story: http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7805604

Scary.
 
1fastmedic said:
The local hospital here in Fayetteville, NC just had an incident like this. A guy had fake credentials from the University of Tennessee and was hired as an ER doc. He actually began orientation and had treated some patients in the ER. He also spent time riding with the hospital owned 9-1-1 EMS service as was treating patients. They didn't get around to checking his credentials for over a month. Once they found out, he was arrested. However, he posted bail and then skipped town. The only way they knew he left town was after a taxi driver called the police and told them that some young kid got into his taxi and told him that he was a doctor and that he needed to pick up a patient and have them transported to TN. When they covered the story on the local news, they had a big picture of him standing in front of a local ambulance wearing the EMS uniform that was issued to him. It was definitely a blow the hospital.
For those interested, here's a link to the story: http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7805604

Scary.
Click to expand...

Wow! Now that guy is clearly delusional. It sounds like he truly believes he's a doc...
 
I'm actually not surprised that someone can fake themselves as an attending doctor if they are bright and not working in acute emergency situations. Why? If in a residency program the guy can make the resident do all the work and just nod yes or no.

How do I know this? I've seen too many idiot attendings not do much or actually even know much with the residents sometimes knowing more.

In outpatient I see licensed doctors all the time do horrendous things like give patients as much Xanax as they want or give a sleep med without recommending sleep hygiene. I am often times put in a position where I have to fix the meds other doctors order. E.g. I just had a patient on a statin with muscle cramps and even suffered rhabodmyolysis and his PCP just kept increasing the dose of it. Guy went into stage IV kidney disease and when discharged the guy put him back on it again. I discussed that statins could do this and had to got a nephrologist to check him out just in case and it turned out it was the statin causing the problem.

But in acute settings it's tougher to get away with this crap cause attendings and nurses have less tolerance for the BS cause they're on the frontlines and practice is very transparent. A doc orders a med in the ER too many people see it-other nurses, other attendings etc.
 
whopper said:
I'm actually not surprised that someone can fake themselves as an attending doctor if they are bright and not working in acute emergency situations. Why? If in a residency program the guy can make the resident do all the work and just nod yes or no.

How do I know this? I've seen too many idiot attendings not do much or actually even know much with the residents sometimes knowing more.

In outpatient I see licensed doctors all the time do horrendous things like give patients as much Xanax as they want or give a sleep med without recommending sleep hygiene. I am often times put in a position where I have to fix the meds other doctors order. E.g. I just had a patient on a statin with muscle cramps and even suffered rhabodmyolysis and his PCP just kept increasing the dose of it. Guy went into stage IV kidney disease and when discharged the guy put him back on it again. I discussed that statins could do this and had to got a nephrologist to check him out just in case and it turned out it was the statin causing the problem.

But in acute settings it's tougher to get away with this crap cause attendings and nurses have less tolerance for the BS cause they're on the frontlines and practice is very transparent. A doc orders a med in the ER too many people see it-other nurses, other attendings etc.
Click to expand...

Out of all the threads to give a 5 year bump to THIS is the one you choose?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

P
  • Locked
Finding a Doctor to Shadow
Replies
1
Views
537
SpoiledMilk
S
M
  • Question
Can you be a doctor without any vaccines?
Replies
23
Views
3K
PB2464
P
A
How do doctors get paid?
Replies
3
Views
779
Mad Jack
Mad Jack
P
If you shadowed with a foreign doctor can they write your LOR?
Replies
8
Views
1K
Doc_Ock
Doc_Ock
F
Would it be okay to ask a nearby DO school for a possible list of doctors to shadow?
Replies
5
Views
1K
PapaGuava
PapaGuava
Top