Umpqua Health and Drs. Hoyne and Jorgensen - Sad Medical Care

20 November 2020

To:  Dr. Layne Jorgensen, Chief Clinical Officer

            Umpqua Health - Newton Creek

            3031 NE Stephens St.

            Roseburg, OR  97470

Re:  Unprofessional Conduct of Dr. James Hoyne

I am writing to you today regarding the unprofessional conduct reported by a mutual patient that Dr. Hoyne saw and questioned extensively regarding my medical practices.  Instead of focusing his attention on the patient's healthcare concerns, as any good practitioner would do, he reportedly spent more than half the visit grilling the patient on how I operate my medical practice.

I waited until I was able to review the medical records of that visit, which of course do not mention any such questions, just as I suspected they wouldn't.  They clearly also document a physical examination that the patient denies ever happened.  I would not have expected one to be documented during this COVID distancing time, since most clinicians are hardly even seeing patients in person.  Since he didn't sign off on the note until almost a week later, he probably doesn't even remember the conversation he had with the patient, much less all the other details he documented in irregular sections.

Issues that the patient says Dr. Hoyne questioned were regarding the length of visits, prices, whether or not I filled their prescriptions in-house, and more.  If Dr. Hoyne, or you, or any of your other providers wants to know how my practice operates, they should be talking directly to me or my office staff.  Quit wasting patient time and billing insurances for your disingenuous actions.  I would normally file this complaint to the Oregon Medical Board, but I know that they will do nothing since it is basically a dispute between two parties and there is no evidence to prove either side's statements.

That being said, I will begin to inform my patients that are seeing Dr. Hoyne that they should consider recording their visits and/or bringing witnesses into the exam room in case anything like this occurs in the future.  Recording telemed visits will be easy for patients as well as having witnesses listening in.  Formal complaints could then be filed with the board and with their insurance companies.  Civil litigation may also be considered if I find evidence of any type of defamation in his statements.

When your clinic sees patients without first getting medical records, misleading them to think that you might prescribe for their chronic pain or other issues, it shows that you are only concerned about getting that big first visit insurance fee.  You deny patients care until you get records, yet you don't always get them.  You know that you are not going to prescribe and just "lie" to them.  You do that to Oregon Health Plan patients all the time.  Hopefully Umpqua Health Alliance will soon be forced to cover chronic pain medications that they have been denying since the summer of 2013.

Considering that I have seen your clinic's providers failing to do pain agreements, material risk notices, check the OR PDMP, drug test, properly read drug test results, do confirmation testing before dismissing patients, and more -- all as advised by the Oregon Medical Board, the CDC and multiple other agencies, I find it deplorable that Dr. Hoyne is "investigating" my practice when his own practice is questionable.  He is guilty of the aboe for the few patients that he treats for chronic pain.  Given that he is refusing to treat many patients for chronic pain, I will start encouraging those patients to file complaints to the OMB for failure to treat or failure to do any of the above recommended medical acts.

I have attached a copy of a letter that I send to some offices interested in referring patients to my office for chronic pain management care.  Since I have reviewed records from all over the state and even from out of state, from primary care providers and specialty pain clinics, I can easily say that I have the most extensive pre-acceptance review process of any office in Douglas County, probably in all the state too.  I do have the most extensie Controlled Substance Medication Agreement of any office in Oregon.  Most offices are still using agreements that they created before the 2016 CDC Guidelines, showing that they can't even be bothered to update their materials to current standards of medical care.

I will await your response to the letter for 14 days.  I doubt you will even bother to respond given what I have heard about you and your practices too.  If I hear further reports or find documentation lacing from any of your providers, I will definitely encourage those patients to file complaints with any and all appropriate agencies.

Sincerely,

Dr. Darryl George

Affordable Integrative Medicine

832 NW Highland St.

Roseburg, OR  97470

Tel:  541.672.8366