(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
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Amid new disclosures, state’s position on licensing boards remains unclear [1]
['Clark Kauffman', 'More From Author', '- October']
Date: 2023-10-23
The state of Iowa has now disclosed the allegations of impropriety it levied against an Ottumwa chiropractor seven months ago.
The records show the chiropractor faced disciplinary charges related to the same alleged conduct in 2022, resulting in his license being suspended and then reinstated. This time, the conduct resulted in the chiropractor agreeing to surrender his license.
The disclosure, made in response to a formal Open Records Law request from the Iowa Capital Dispatch, comes in the wake of the state asserting that specific allegations of misconduct made against licensed professionals are considered “investigative” information that must be kept confidential.
It’s not clear whether the new disclosure in the Iowa Board of Chiropractic’s case involving Bruce Lindberg represents a reversal of that position. While the state did disclose the specific allegations in one case against Lindberg, it did not acknowledge the Capital Dispatch’s request for information in a separate case involving Lindberg.
The newly disclosed information involves the board’s March 2023 allegation that on Feb. 16, 2022, Lindberg performed chiropractic adjustments on a 10-year-old male child without the consent of the child’s patients.
Lindberg allegedly kissed the child on the top of his head, hugged him, and commented on how cute he was while telling him he could “come back any time, that he did not have to bring his mom, and that he could bring his friends.”
According to the board, Lindberg “did not ask any medical history prior to the treatment and failed to keep adequate records that complied with the regulations for record keeping.”
Public access to board charges has fluctuated
Over the past three years, public access to information from Iowa’s licensing boards has fluctuated.
Prior to October 2021, all state licensing boards publicly disclosed charges against practitioners at the time they were filed or at the time the practitioners were notified of the charges.
That disclosure included not just the charges themselves — which are often vague, such “professional incompetence” or “unethical conduct” — but also the specific underlying conduct that gave rise to the charges, such as a botched surgery or the theft of patient medications.
In October 2021, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the basic facts and circumstances surrounding disciplinary action against licensed professionals must be kept confidential at least until the licensing boards issue their final rulings in the matter – a process that sometimes takes years.
The court’s decision was based on a statute that says “investigative information” gathered as part of a complaint against a licensee must be kept confidential at least until the board issues its final decision. The court concluded that the basic facts and circumstances surrounding a case are “investigative” in nature, and therefore confidential.
In the aftermath of that decision, most of Iowa’s licensing boards began issuing redacted statements of charges to keep secret the basic facts and circumstances of the case. Once the matter was finalized, that same information was made public.
Recently, however, some boards have taken the position that the basic facts and circumstances must remain sealed from public view even after a case is finalized.
For example, the Iowa Board of Nursing has repeatedly refused a request from the Capital Dispatch for an unredacted copy of the written statement of charges against a nurse, Alicia Davis, whose license has been revoked. The redacted portion of that document outlines the specific conduct that led to the charges against Davis.
In the Board of Chiropractic case involving Lindberg, the board recently resolved the case with a settlement calling for Lindberg to surrender his license. But the basic facts and circumstances in that case remained sealed until an Open Records Law request was filed by the Capital Dispatch. That led to the unredacted version of the statement of charges being published on the website of the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals & Licensing, which now oversees many of the state’s licensing boards.
State’s position on disclosure remains unclear
It’s not clear whether the recent disclosure in the Lindberg case represents a reversal of the state’s position on public access to such information.
The Board of Nursing has yet to disclose the requested information in the Davis case, and DIAL disposed of the Capital Dispatch’s request for information on a second disciplinary case involving Lindberg without turning over the information or making a claim of confidentiality.
In a written statement, DIAL said it is still working on the broader issue of public access to licensing board information.
“About three months ago on July 1, approximately 30 licensing boards from four different agencies were realigned into one department, the Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing,” the department said. “The goal of DIAL has been to standardize, modernize and simplify its processes in order to promote best practices across the entire department and provide Iowans great service. The department is working closely with the attorney general’s office to ensure all information is timely and accurately provided to the public in accordance with Iowa law.”
Board had previously reinstated Lindberg’s license
Lindberg’s licensing issues date back to 1990, when he was sentenced to six years of probation after being convicted on two counts of indecent contact with children and two counts of indecent exposure. Court records indicate the victims in the 1989 case were minors and that some were high school athletes.
Months after Lindberg was convicted, the Board of Chiropractic initiated disciplinary proceedings against him. He eventually agreed to surrender his license pending the completion of counseling and periodic evaluations. At some point, the board reinstated Lindberg’s license, which remained active until shortly after his April 2022 arrest on a charge of simple assault involving the 10-year-old boy.
A few weeks after his arrest, Lindberg agreed to stop seeing patients until the criminal case was resolved and his chiropractic license was suspended. In July 2022, a judge dismissed the criminal charge, which led to the Board of Chiropractic agreeing to reinstate Lindberg’s license.
In March 2023, however, the board levied its most recent set of charges against Lindberg, accusing him of professional incompetence, negligence in the practice of the profession, unethical conduct through verbal or physical abuse or through improper sexual conduct, unprofessional conduct in connection with the practice of chiropractic, and the violation of a regulation or law related to record keeping.
The new disclosures in that case make clear the charges grew out of the same alleged conduct that led to the licensing-board charges in 2022.
The 2022 case was based entirely on the fact that Lindberg was facing criminal charges — and so once the criminal charges were dismissed, the disciplinary case was, as well. The March 2023 case was based on the underlying conduct that led to the criminal charges.
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