State board weighs action against doctor

The State Medical Board of Ohio said Wednesday that it intends to determine whether to take further action on the suspended license of a Mount Carmel Health System doctor who has been accused of ordering potentially fatal doses of Husel

painkillers for more than two dozen intensive-care patients.

In a letter to Dr. William Husel, the board said it will consider several censure options, up to a permanent revocation, which would invalidate his current license and render him unable to obtain any license in the future.

Husel was fired by Mount Carmel on Dec. 5. The health system has said he overdosed 34 near-death patients from 2015 to 2018, with potentially fatal dosage amounts given to 28 of those patients.

Along with firing Husel, the system also has fired at least one administrator and placed 23 employees, among them pharmacists, nurses and managers, on paid leave.

The letter references the deaths of six unnamed patients, all of whom were given the opioid fentanyl. Five also were given the sedative midazolam, commercially known as Versed.

The board calls the dosages “inappropriate and excessive” and says Husel ordered them, administered them or caused them to be administered.

The board suspended the license of Husel, 43, of Liberty Township, near Dublin, on Jan. 25. The suspension letter references two other unnamed patients, one who received fentanyl and midazolam and one who received fentanyl with the opioid hydromorphone, known as Dilaudid.

Lawyers representing the doctor in the Medical Board matter did not respond to a request from The Dispatch for comment.

Husel has 30 days to request a hearing on the Medical Board accusations in both the Jan. 25 letter and the Wednesday letter.