Two Massachusetts Doctors Disciplined
The Board of Registration in Medicine, the Massachusetts’ agency that regulates the practice of physicians in the state, has disciplined two doctors.
The Board decided to permanently restrict Dr. Kathaleen Porter, a Natick surgeon, from performing surgery unless assisting another surgeon. The Board took the action against Porter after finding “a pattern of practice that calls into question her competence to perform surgery as a primary surgeon.” Porter’s surgeries have resulted in the deaths of two patients.
In other Board action, the agency found that Dr. Nicolas Pacella had been writing prescriptions for fictitious patients in order to obtain drugs for his own consumption. According to the Boston Globe, “The board indefinitely suspended his license, but the suspension was postponed because Pacella agreed to enter a probation agreement requiring that he be monitored until at least 2014, maintain sobriety, and complete additional continuing medical education credits in the area of proper prescribing practices.” Pacella is a pediatrician who practices in Worcester.