WCBC

October 29th, 2014 by WCBC Radio

The Maryland Board of Physicians is expected to discuss a legislative proposal  next week  that would require doctors to undergo criminal background checks before being licensed to practice in the state and periodically thereafter. The Baltimore Sun reports the board began developing the proposal this summer after it was revealed that a western Maryland doctor had been practicing in the state for nearly two decades despite having previously served a prison sentence for raping a woman at gunpoint. While other professionals —including nurses, social workers, therapists and mortuary drivers — are subject to background checks in Maryland, doctors aren't.  The issue was brought to light when Dr. William Dando, a former family practitioner in Catonsville, was accused of sexually assaulting a patient at an urgent care center near Cumberland. Allegany County prosecutors dropped the charges against Dando as his trial was scheduled to begin last month, because he agreed to surrender his medical license.                                           

Dando was convicted of rape with the threat of a deadly weapon in Florida in 1987. He served four years of a 10-year sentence, released early for good behavior. He began practicing medicine in Maryland in 1996. Maryland is one of 13 states that does not conduct background checks on physicians, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards.