Sheldon, Iowa (Iowa Capital Dispatch) — The state of Iowa has suspended a Sheldon chiropractor from practicing medicine but is keeping secret the basis for its action and the terms under which it agreed to reinstate his license.
by Iowa Capital DispatchOn April 10, the Iowa State Board of Chiropractic issued an order in a settlement with Sheldon chiropractor Todd Miedema, which requires Miedema to stop practicing chiropractic care and has the same effect as suspending Miedema’s license.
The document also states that in order to satisfy the Commission’s interest in protecting the public and “to avoid any emergency orders” that the Commission may issue in the matter, the parties have agreed that Dr. Miedema will suspend his medical practice until further orders from the Commission.
In the document, the commission sets out specific conditions for reinstating Miedema’s license, all of which have been redacted to protect against public disclosure. Three additional paragraphs that appear to detail the commission’s rationale for action have also been redacted to protect against public disclosure.
Contacted by the Iowa Capital-Dispatch on Friday, Miedema declined to comment on the incident.
Limited access to information
Over the past three years, public access to information from Iowa licensing boards has decreased significantly: Prior to October 2021, all state licensing boards made specific allegations against practitioners public at the time they were charged.
The disclosures included not only the allegations themselves (often vague, such as “professional incompetence” or “unethical conduct”) but also the specific underlying conduct that gave rise to the allegations, such as botched surgery or theft of patient medications.
The court’s decision was based on a statute that requires that “investigative information” collected as part of a complaint against a licensee must be kept confidential at least until the Commission has made a final decision. The court concluded that the basic facts and circumstances surrounding the case were “investigative” in nature and therefore should be kept confidential.
Following the ruling, most Iowa licensing boards began issuing redacted complaints to keep secret the underlying charges that sparked the charges. Once the cases were resolved, the same information was made public.
Miedema’s case is unusual in that it represents an order issued by the commission, rather than simply a series of allegations, but the conduct that allegedly led to the order and the commission’s terms of reinstatement are likely to be kept secret until further action is taken in the case.
The handling of this case bears some similarities to one in which the commission acted last fall, when the state appeared to adopt a new policy of keeping the basic facts and circumstances of a case secret even after it had been finalized.
For example, the Iowa State Board of Nursing repeatedly denied Capital Dispatch’s 2023 requests for uncensored copies of the complaints against nurses whose licenses were revoked. The uncensored portions of the documents outlined the specific actions that led to the complaints against the nurses.
In another case before the Chiropractic Board last year, the Board resolved the matter with a settlement that required the practitioner to surrender his license. However, the basic facts and circumstances of that case were It remained sealed pending the filing of an Open Records Act request. The Capital Dispatch reported that the case involved allegations of inappropriate contact with a 10-year-old. The chiropractor had previously been convicted of two counts of lewd acts with a child and two counts of indecent acts.
Even before the 2021 ruling, Iowa’s licensing boards have shown a penchant for public disclosure. There is much less information on licensee misconduct. It’s a common practice in other states.
Clark Kaufman, Iowa Capital Dispatch
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