Regina doctor suspended for misconduct after making changes to medical record following patient's death

A Regina doctor has been given a month-long suspensionand fined more than $7,000 after being found guilty by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan of professional misconduct foraltering a patient's medical record multiple times following the patient's death.

Dr. Svitlana Cheshenchukfaced a disciplinary hearing with the self-regulating bodyin connection with the records she kept on a patient, referred to in the hearing only as S.H.

"You failed to exercise due diligence to ensure that the information in your patient records accurately reflected the care which you provided to patient S.H," read the charges, which were filed in September 2017. The college's decision was delivered last month.

According to the statement of charges,Cheshenchukcompleted a medical record for the patient on Oct. 17, 2014, and a few days later, heard of the patient's death.

Following that, Cheshenchuk altered the patient's medical record, adding the words "suggested to go to [emergency room], was reluctant to doECGand go to ER, stated, 'it's bronchitis, I know.'"

The college requested the patient's electronic medical record fromCheshenchuk'soffice in October of 2015, butthe college found "numerous substantive changes" had been made to the fileover a period ofeight months followingthe patient'svisitin 2014.

Other charges included making changes to the medical record about the patient's symptoms and recorded past medical history, and altering a diagnosis to read "bronchitis"in June of 2015.

The charges saidthat Cheshenchuk submitted altered medical records to the college, did not exercise due diligence in ensuring the records were accurate, and did not tell the college the records had been altered.

In its Jan. 19 decision, the college's council formally reprimanded Cheshenchuk, suspending her for one month and fining her$7,484.61for the costs associated with the investigation.

She was also ordered to complete an ethics course on professionalism and a course on record keeping.