December 31, 2003, Wednesday, BC cycle
1:03 AM Eastern Time
SECTION: State and Regional
LENGTH: 420 words
HEADLINE: Clinic closes because of inadequate training, poor supervision
DATELINE: MADISON, Wis.

The University of Wisconsin Medical School has closed a neurology clinic after investigators said critically ill patients were put at risk because of sloppy handling of patient records, inadequate employee training and poor supervision.

Paul DeLuca Jr., the school's vice dean, said Tuesday no patients were physically harmed during the lab's muscle strength tests. Most suffered from multiple sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease.

"However, patient/subjects have been inconvenienced and put at risk, which is unacceptable," DeLuca wrote Neurology Department chairman Thomas Sutula on Nov. 21.

The lab saw about 500 patients and administered about 2,000 tests a year, said Dr. Benjamin Brooks, the lab's medical director for 12 years.

Brooks said he would take the dispute to court, adding patient safety and privacy never were issues.

"The report does not reflect the excellent management of the lab," he said.

But DeLuca said some people administering the tests had little knowledge of what to do if a patient had a medical emergency during the test. Sutula said some patients may not have realized they were test subjects.

"I think one of the concerns is that patients weren't sure when the tests were intended to produce useful data for clinical management (of their cases) and when they were part of a research protocol," Sutula said.

An internal investigation was sparked by a whistleblower in July, as well as an Aug. 18 incident in which Dr. Carl Getto, a UW Hospital associate dean, was notified an unsupervised student was preparing to test patients in the lab.

Getto told investigators he discovered the student was not a Medical School employee and did not know appropriate emergency medical and safety procedures. In addition, the student had the confidential patient database open on a computer.

"We saw no evidence of privacy being breached," DeLuca said. "On the other hand, the way the lab was functioning, breach of privacy was a serious concern."

The whistleblower, whose name was not released, was a former student employee who said students had access to confidential patient records through a commonly borrowed password.

But Brooks said lab workers needed to access the information and the department failed to properly issue them passwords.

Sutula said in addition to research and clinical services questions, "the lab had also run out of money."

Brooks said the Medical School in 2002 restricted his ability to apply for grants, creating the financial crunch.