Committee: Discipline
Decision Date: 23 Jan 2017
Summary:
On January 23, 2017, the Discipline Committee found that Dr. Podell had committed an act of professional misconduct in that he engaged in an act or omission relevant to the practice of medicine that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable, or unprofessional.
Dr. Marc Jeffrey Podell is a physician who received his certificate of registration authorizing independent practice in 1981. Dr. Podell practiced as a surgical assistant at Trillium Health Partners (“the Hospital”) between 2003 and 2014.
Between 2008 and 2014, Dr. Podell was repeatedly inaccessible during his on-call periods. Dr. Podell did not respond to pages, was frequently late and/or did not attend for emergency surgery while he was on call. His conduct jeopardized patient care as surgeons in emergent cases were forced to proceed without assistance. Although Dr. Podell asserted that he encountered difficulties with his pager and cell phone, he took insufficient steps to address the issue such that he could be available to the physicians and staff of the Hospital, despite numerous attempts by the Hospital to address this ongoing problem.
Dr. Podell made repeated inappropriate comments in the operating room including commenting on the size and features of anesthetized patients. In April of 2009, Dr. Podell, while in the doctor’s lounge, amidst other physicians, made inappropriate comments while looking at pictures of women on a website.
In May of 2013 Dr. Podell approached an 18 year old patient four times in two days, aggressively requesting cash payment of his fee for assisting at her laparoscopic appendicitis surgery in the Paediatrics unit. The patient was upset by this experience. Both nursing and social work staff felt that his advances towards the patient were harassing. Dr. Podell conducted himself in this manner even though he had been told several years prior to this incident to refrain from repeat demands for immediate payment from Quebec patients for his services.
After speaking with the social worker who had assisted with the above incident, Dr. Podell inappropriately requested that she portray him in a more favorable light in her report.
In April of 2014, in the Operating Room, Dr. Podell bumped into Nurse X. Nurse X felt that the physical contact was intentional, and filed a complaint against Dr. Podell. Dr. Podell reported that the contact was unintentional. Dr. Podell was asked not to have any contact with Nurse X. Nonetheless, he attempted to do so on three occasions, which Nurse X found intimidating.
On May 7 of 2014 the Hospital suspended Dr. Podell’s privileges. Dr. Podell subsequently resigned his privileges on May 14, 2016.
On January 23, 2017, the Discipline Committee ordered and directed that:
-The Registrar suspend Dr. Podell’s certificate of registration for a period of three (3) months, commencing immediately.
-The following terms, conditions and limitations be imposed on Dr. Podell’s certificate of registration authorizing independent practice:
a) Upon his return to practice, Dr. Podell shall comply with the College’s Changing Scope of Practice and/or Re-entering Practice policies, attached hereto as Appendix “A” and Appendix “B”, if applicable.
b) Dr. Podell shall inform the College of any and all new Practice Locations within fifteen (15) days of commencing practice at that location.
c) Dr. Podell shall, at his own expense: enter into an agreement with the Physician Health Program (PHP), prior to returning to practice, which shall include workplace monitoring as recommended by the PHP and reports to the College every six months.
d) Dr. Podell shall comply with the agreement set out in (c) above.
e) Dr. Podell shall consent to information-sharing/reporting between the College and the workplace monitors, the PHP as well as any other persons necessary in order for the College to receive information relevant to his compliance with these or any other terms of the order.
- Dr. Podell appear before the panel to be reprimanded.
- Dr. Podell pay costs to the College in the amount of $5,000.00 by July 23, 2017.
The reprimand was delivered after the conclusion of the hearing.