Moving board out in open, past storm

By Marshall Allen

Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Louis Ling is about to sit on the hot seat as the new executive director of the Nevada State Medical Examiners Board.

The board licenses and regulates medical doctors and, in the aftermath of the hepatitis C crisis, has been accused of corruption and failing to protect the public.

The board was widely criticized for not immediately suspending the license of Dr. Dipak Desai, the owner of the clinic that caused the outbreak. And several board members were lambasted for going soft on Desai because of close personal or business ties.

Desai has since been barred from practicing medicine in Nevada and faces disciplinary hearings by the medical board.

Ling has been general counsel for the Nevada Board of Pharmacy for the past eight years.

Why do you want this job?

On the personal side, my father, grandfather and great-grandfather were physicians. This is as close to the family business as I can get as a lawyer. But also, I’ve been doing occupational licensing for 17 years. Regulating medicine is going to be a great new challenge.

What skills do you bring to the table?

Some board members said that I would provide them with an outside objective view of this board because I have nothing vested. My perspective is simply to make them operate as well as I possibly can. They wanted somebody who had a fresh view into their world.

What’s your plan?

My plan for the first few months is to listen and learn. I need to know what’s important to the practitioners, the public that it serves, and I also need to do a lot of listening to the concerns of legislators. They’ve expressed strong criticisms of late.

What challenges lie ahead of the board?

There is a general perception that this board protects its own. I don’t believe that. But I do know the perception is there. I want to get the focus off of controversy and the board as an institution and back on patients and patient care. Also, I am a big advocate of open government and I think that a little more openness will show the public that the board is serving them and protecting them.

How can the board be more open?

It’s obvious that the work of this board deserves public scrutiny and is important to the public. Unfortunately, this board has been accused of trying to keep things from the public. Many times there are valid reasons for what they’ve done, and those are lost.

The more work this board does in public, the more the public will see that this board does its job. The Board of Pharmacy mostly deliberates in public. You see them weigh a case and hear why they’re ruling the way they do. I think that’s one of the best things the Pharmacy Board does. Then the public can see them thinking through the issues and the ramifications of their decisions. In that case what you get criticized for is fair — it’s for what you did. It’s a whole lot easier than getting criticized for what people think you did.

What do you think of the proposal to consolidate individual licensing boards under a single state department of licensing?

I think it’s a terrible idea. Compare the responsiveness of a state with a giant umbrella board with what we do. That ought to be the measure. Nevada boards are extremely responsive. People call and can speak to a person.