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By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy
State legislators last week grilled the heads of the state boards tasked with overseeing complaints from citizens after reports by the state auditor general revealed some major deficiencies.
“This is why you want to have a robust and well funded Auditor General’s Office,” Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, said at the end of a marathon joint hearing of the House and Senate Health and Human Services Committees.
Lawmakers heard from the heads of the Board of Dental Examiners, Board of Massage Therapy, Board of Optometry and the Naturopathic Physicians Medical Board as part of a regular review process on state agencies and boards. As part of that review, state auditors examined each board’s performance and found all of them failed to timely investigate complaints.
The Board of Dental Examiners did not resolve 32 of the 35 complaints reviewed by auditors, and found that in one instance the board failed to take adequate enforcement action on a complaint that resulted in the death of a person.
In one complaint, auditors found that a dental assistant was directed to mix and administer anesthesia drugs resulting in the patient receiving 10 times the planned dosage. The dentist failed to administer CPR, did not maintain sedation records and did not report the incident to the board, which only became aware of it when the family filed a complaint four months later.
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