Moses Lake physician’s medical license revoked

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake physician Irene Kimura has had her license permanently revoked by the Washington Department of Health. The order revoking Kimura’s license said her treatment of two patients had contributed to their deaths, and that she was negligent in the case of a third patient.

“The panel finds that the license holder can never be rehabilitated and can never regain the ability to practice safely,” the order said. “As such, permanent revocation is necessary.”

The order was issued July 18 and announced in a DOH press release Wednesday. Kimura was first granted a medical license in Washington in 1992.

Kimura’s office was contacted for a statement but did not respond.

The statement of charges filed with the order said Kimura had prescribed medication without properly reviewing the records or adequately examining the two patients. The statement of charges said she also didn’t adequately supervise a third patient, who was showing signs that he might be misusing medications. She also borrowed money from that patient and didn’t pay it back before he died, the statement said.

The investigating commission determined Kimura had contributed to the deaths of a husband and wife, called Patient A and Patient B respectively in the revocation order.

Kimura treated Patient A for about two months, from July to September 2017. The order said Kimura had not checked his prescription history before prescribing medication, including opioids.

“If (Kimura) would have done so, she would have discovered Patient A had filled opioid prescriptions from six different providers in the previous month and had sought and received multiple early refills,” the order said.

Kimura prescribed other medications to Patient A that put him at higher risk for complications given his underlying medical conditions, it said. The investigators determined she didn’t check his symptoms adequately or give enough consideration to alternative treatments. A different medical provider had stopped treating the man because he violated the conditions of a contract governing opioid prescriptions. However, Kimura didn’t get information from that medical provider, the order said.

“It is clear from the record that (Kimura) failed to establish pain and functional goals for Patient A’s chronic opioid treatment plan,” it said.

The man died in September 2017.

The investigation found Kimura did not pay adequate attention to the man’s other medical conditions, and that some of her treatment recommendations were not supported in the records.

Kimura treated Patient B from 2017 to 2020. The woman told her previous medical provider in 2017 that she had an opioid addiction, the order said, but Kimura started prescribing opioids to the woman in early 2018. She didn’t check the woman’s previous history, it said, or check her medical conditions to see if there were other treatments.

“(Kimura’s) progressive augmentation of Patient B’s opioid dose for chronic pain, without documented justification and despite Patient B’s opioid-unresponsive pain symptoms, placed Patient B at risk of harm and is not consistent with the standard of care or opioid treatment guidelines,” the order said.

While the woman did sign agreements governing opioid use, Kimura didn’t check them, the report said. The woman visited emergency rooms at least 29 times between August 2017 and October 2019, and investigators determined Kimura didn’t check most of those records.

The woman was admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit in March 2019, but Kimura did not get those records, and there was no documentation that she contacted the woman’s psychiatrist, the report said. The investigation concluded she didn’t consider the woman’s underlying medical conditions when treating her.

Kimura treated Patient C from about 2008 to 2021. She prescribed opioids throughout his treatment, the report said, even when his behavior indicated he might be misusing the drugs.

“(Kimura) did indicate in her documentation that Patient C was ‘addicted’ when he came to her practice. Although (Kimura) indicated Patient C ‘refused weaning’ (from opioids) on numerous occasions, (Kimura) still had an obligation to wean medication that placed Patient C at risk of harm, even if Patient C did not agree to this plan,” it said.

The man had other medical conditions, including depression, that Kimura failed to treat adequately, the order said.

She borrowed money from Patient C, beginning around 2013. Ultimately, he loaned her about $25,000. She had agreed to pay cash, or give him samples of a drug as payment. She didn’t pay all of it back, and still owed him money when he died in May 2022.

“She had periodically missed payments and had stopped making payments altogether in approximately November 2020,” the order said.

“(Kimura) significantly overstepped the boundaries of the physician-patient relationship. Making (Kimura’s) action even worse was that Patient C was more vulnerable than many other patients, as he suffered from a substance abuse problem, depression and memory issues,” it said. “Regarding this vulnerability, (Kimura) took advantage of Patient C by trading prescriptions of Abilify in lieu of interest payments on the loan. (She) did not even pay back the money she had been loaned and had stopped making any payments by the time of Patient C’s death.”

The revocation followed a 2010 case where Kimura’s license was placed on probation. She met the conditions imposed in that case and the probation ended in 2013, according to DOH records.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.