By Cy Ryan

Tue, Aug 5, 2008 (6:21 p.m.)

RENO – A lawyer who has prosecuted disciplinary cases against errant pharmacists for the past eight years has been named head of the agency that regulates the more than 5,000 doctors in Nevada.

The state Board of Medical Examiners Tuesday unanimously selected Louis Ling of Reno as its executive director, succeeding Tony Clark, who is retiring after five years on the job.

He beat out finalists Weldon “Don” Havins, who is chief executive officer and special counsel to the Clark County Medical Society, and Douglas C. Cooper, chief of investigations for the medical examiners board since 2001.

Ling was the lesser-known candidate in the trio. Board members, during a teleconference meeting, said they knew Cooper and Havins well and all praised their work. But they said they are facing difficult times and it would be best not to have a doctor serving as director, referring to Havins.

Havins, an attorney and a doctor, practices ophthalmology in Las Vegas. He told the board he would like to continue seeing a few patients. In addition, he did not want to move to the headquarters in Reno. If selected he said he would commute a few days a week and open a branch office in Las Vegas.

The medical examiners board has been criticized for not reacting fast enough to the Hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas. But it maintained it investigated all the allegations thoroughly and has filed a complaint against Dr. Dipak Desai, owner of the Endosopy Center of Southern Nevada, the focus of the outbreak. A complaint has also been filed by the board against Dr. Eladio Carrera of Las Vegas.

Ling will take over from Clark in October. His salary will be negotiated.

Before serving as general counsel to the state Board of Pharmacy, Ling served as a senior deputy attorney general for nine years and was counsel for a number of boards that dealt with health matters such as the dental examiners, long-term care administrators, oriental medicine, audiologists, health aid specialists and psychological examiners.

Cooper, before joining the board, was an investigator for the state Insurance Division and for the state Welfare Division. Havins, an attorney and a doctor, practiced ophthalmology in Las Vegas before joining taking the job with the medical society.