Research for New Podcast Details Deviant History of Current Physician

Although state medical boards should know about — and better address — many malevolent behaviors of those they authorize to practice, patients seldom have awareness of such disturbing records; related research highlights glaring example of current Florida geriatrics specialist.

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — July 22, 2024 — A new podcast series details alarming shortcomings of Florida’s program designed to help state doctors and other medical practitioners discreetly get support in dealing with drug and alcohol addictions as well as other impairments. According to the podcast producer, TellItWrite Publishing, too many afflicted doctors participate in the Professionals Resource Network (PRN) to avoid losing their licenses instead of genuinely committing to sobriety.

The six-part podcast, My Friend Ben, is a deeply personal undertaking for its creator Chuck Miller, who researched and developed the content after his close friend, Dr. Benjamin Eric First, murdered an innocent woman and killed himself in June 2019. {See related release.}

Dr. First arguably didn’t deserve a license to practice – from the beginning, according to Miller, who got to know him soon after he opened in 2001 his first maxillofacial surgery office in New Port Richey, Fla. Signs of his volatility surfaced early on, including one of at least two hospitalizations for overdosing on nitrous oxide supplies at the location. Despite ineffective rehab stints and other red flags, he continued to operate and expand to a second office in nearby Palm Harbor, where First and Miller both resided with their families.

“My inspiration for the podcast centered on Ben, his victims, and what led up to his murder-suicide,” Miller explained, noting that he struggled to begin the undertaking due to the emotional toll of the tragedy. When he started digging into why Dr. First was continually permitted to practice for nearly two decades despite a disturbing litany of documented offenses and afflictions, Miller found that many impaired doctors receive similar “privileges.”

“My friend was far from alone in getting what seemed like endless protections through the voluntary PRN program and in other ways,” Miller said. “Ensuring physician privacy is understandable to a point. Patients, however, should know if they are under the care of questionable doctors or those with extraordinarily questionable histories.”

Dubious doctors and distinctions
The PRN website touts that many doctors opt to participate in the program instead of formal disciplinary processes administered by the Florida Department of Health and Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Although PRN’s mission is to aid impaired doctors in their recovery while ensuring patient and public safety, Miller contends that the balance tends to lean in favor of medical practitioners.

Among numerous cases Miller researched, one stood out as particularly telling due to its chilling nature and status among the earliest documented in PRN’s history. The doctor, Stanley Mark Dratler, still practices today in Punta Gorda as a geriatrics specialist who typically meets patients at their residences.

Local, national and international news occasionally covered Dratler’s troubling history over the years. The Florida Department of Health website’s public search tool, which supposedly captures disciplinary measures against doctors, reflects no such actions for Dr. First and surprisingly scant details about Dratler, who began practicing in Florida in 1980. “From what they make available online, anyone looking there would not be able to decipher the lurid nature of his behavior,” Miller said. His research of medical board documents, legal reports and other material found:

• Female patient of Dratler’s in 1977 at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center accuses him as “a resident physician in the hospital’s employ” to have “wrongfully and maliciously injected her with valium and proceeded to have sexual intercourse with her while she was in a drugged and helpless state”

• Dratler’s profile and records show his residency as occurring from 1978 to 1982 at St. Louis University Hospital, leading to position in 1985 for new St. Louis Regional Medical Center’s obstetrics/gynecology department
  
• Florida Department of Professional Regulation reveals investigation in July 1985 of 27 charges against Dratler for sexual misconduct at his Dade City practice, including use of sodium Pentothal on patient “in order to engage in sexual misconduct with her”

• Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts investigates Dratler, stating it was unaware that patients had filed 32 sexual abuse complaints against him – with patients as young as 14 and 16 – in St. Louis and Dade City; board plans to seek injunction to ban Dratler, who “volunteers” by end of 1985 to no longer practice in Missouri

• Dratler becomes one of earliest participants in Florida’s PRN program when in 1986 he has his state medical license suspended for three years for “exercising influence within a patient-physician relationship for purposes of engaging a patient in sexual activity;” 27 counts of sexual misconduct are alleged with six patients at Dade City practice

• Dratler’s license is reinstated in 1989 yet with stipulation that he must have a supervising physician present when seeing patients; the condition – and his reported history as a “sadistic sex addict” – makes it difficult for him to resume practicing

• In June 1990, a public health official for Broward County asks the Florida Board of Medicine about hiring Dratler to address the county’s profound shortage of obstetricians; “appalled” board members staunchly oppose the request: “We’re not here to accommodate the public health service or Dr. Dratler. We’re here to protect the public.”

• Florida Board of Medicine approves in September 1991 a plan for Dratler to resume practicing at a Sarasota-based group of clinics – with a doctor there willing to accept the responsibility of continuously monitoring Dratler

• Florida Board reports in early 1992 that in his new position Dratler is frequently violating supervision requirements; two years later, he is officially reprimanded for the offense and must pay a $2,500 fine within the following 12 months of resuming practice; placed on probation for another five years

• By the year 2000, Dratler is in prison but not for his alleged offenses; he’s hired by the Florida Department of Corrections and becomes Chief Health Officer at Taylor Correctional Institution; he’s considered one of many Deviant Doctors Dumped on Prisons

• Dratler retires in 2010 from Florida DOC and begins private practice in Punta Gorda the same year as he is referenced in court case of a Maryland pharmacist convicted and incarcerated for illegally dispensing more than eight million doses of oxycodone – the majority in Florida (none in Maryland), with most filled in four days by eight doctors in one month; Maryland Board of Pharmacy “questions the validity of the ‘sample’ prescription from Dr. Stanley Mark Dratler” admitted into evidence

• Dratler becomes affiliated with local hospitals in Sarasota area, applies for and receives certification in 2018 to prescribe – as he still does today – marijuana; media report quotes Dratler at the time saying he has abstained from his sexual addiction for 32 years

“Many thousands of doctors have participated in PRN and PHPs nationwide over the years,” Miller said. “Program reports often refer to participant satisfaction, license retention and other factors as evidence of successful outcomes. It’s hard to believe yet stands to reason that doctors like my friend Ben contribute to such statistics. Changes are clearly warranted and long overdue.”

About TellItWrite Publishing
TellItWrite Publishing, LLC, was formed in January 2022, as part of CEO Chuck Miller’s return to his roots as a journalist, which included writing for a broad range of magazines, newspapers and other media throughout his career. He most recently co-owned Tampa Bay-based CommCentric Solutions for 15 years, a firm ranked by Forrester as one of the Top 13 Technology Channel PR Firms globally. TellItWrite began with sharp focus on My Friend Ben, which is now available on five platforms: Apple Podcasts, Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify and YouTube. Learn more at www.tellitwrite.org or email [email protected].