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When he did place a diagnosis in the file it was often changed by the staff because he had not used the proper codes. A CA should never know more about diagnosing the patient than the doctor. I discussed this with Stapleton and Lisa Finnell told me she did the same but Stapleton continued in his ways. He was always concerned about how many people were seen in the office daily and weekly but never about proper patient care.
- Stapleton in November of 2003 showed a lateral lumbar x-ray to me and asked, “Is this an aneurysm”? There was a very obvious aneurysm present in the abdominal aorta. I told him it was and asked if he had measured the aneurysm. He seemed confused and did not seem to even know that he should measure the aneurysm. I then had to explain how to do the measurements. I then asked if the patient had any history of cardiovascular problems and Stapleton said, “No”. I then asked to see any additional film (which there always was) and the AP thoracic film showed that the patient’s sternum had been wired together. This is common in open heart surgery. When I pointed this out to Stapleton I also asked to see the history form the patient completed prior to seeing Stapleton. The patient had listed his open heart surgery. It was obvious that Stapleton paid little attention to the patient’s history. Stapleton’s behavior placed this patient at great risk.
- Multiple patients have called me at home complaining that Stapleton was rough with them or hurt them. When I told Stapleton that patient and former employee/Patient called me and said he (Stapleton) had hurt her husband and that they probably would not be returning to the practice, Stapleton said, “#@?! her, I don’t need her around here anyway. As Dr. Hollern says, ‘If the patients give you problems, fire them’.” This was a common Hollern saying. He always told his students to fire a patient once a month, “It empowers you” he would say. The Patients gave Stapleton another chance. However, Barbara recently called me to say they had stopped seeing Stapleton because of his billing practices. Barbara had worked for me several years prior and understands chiropractic billing. She said that there was a large difference between what she had been taught by me and had seen on EOBs from my office in the past and what was happening with Stapleton. A long time patient told Lisa Finnell’s landlord that Stapleton hurt his neck. He is reported to have said, “If I had a gun I’d shoot him” (Stapleton). Lisa told me that she told Stapleton about the Patient’s complaint and he reportedly said, “What does he expect? That guy is like a hundred years old.” This pissed me off and I confronted Stapleton about it. He said the exact same thing to me. I told him, “He expected to get better or at least not to leave in worse shape than he was in”. I later adjusted the Patient’s neck and told Stapleton to leave him alone. Multiple other patients have called with similar situations. Another local chiropractor recently told me that once I left that he began seeing a large number of new patients from my old office. He related that the first patients all said Stapleton hurt them. More recently he reported that the patients from my former office said they had been hurt and were being lied to.
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