Sifter

Before going under the knife, getting a routine physical or any other medical procedure, wouldn’t it be nice to know a little more about your doctor? By visiting the California Medical Board’s Web site at www.medbd.ca.gov and clicking on “find your doctor,” you can check the public records on any doctor licensed by the state of California. According to the site, 367 doctors have been licensed to practice medicine in Chico since the early 1980s, and of those more than 200 are still treating patients in the area. Below is a selection of information on some of the doctors in town.

• A large number of doctors in Chico attended the Seventh-day Adventist Loma Linda University of Medicine in Southern California. Doctors have also come from overseas, attending med schools in Japan, Pakistan, Iran, England, Philippines, Mexico, Ireland and India. There are also a handful of Stanford and Yale University docs in the area.

• Charles H. Beach is the oldest doc in Chico still licensed to practice medicine. He graduated from the Ohio State University of Medicine in 1948. There are also young docs here: Heidi Houlihan graduated from Temple University in 2000.

• There are docs who have had run-ins with the regulators, however. Loren R. Morgan was restricted by the state of Colorado from the practice of medicine due to many malpractice judgments rendered. In addition, Enloe Medical Center revoked his staff privileges in 2002; he is appealing.

• Eric Paul Hoffman was issued a repremand by the Idaho State Board of Medicine in June 2003 due to misrepresentation of medical credentials/qualification.

• Mehdi Khorsandi was disciplined in February 2003 by the Texas State Board of Medicine and was forced to have a chaperone in the room with him to observe his interactions with his patients.

• In 2003, disciplinary actions were taken against Kenneth Glen Petty when the Missouri State Board of Registration revoked his Missouri medical license. The Oklahoma Board of Medical Examiners has also suspended his Oklahoma medical license.

• James Roger Glover and Leland M. Fillerup have had to serve probation periods while practicing medicine due to administrative disciplinary actions.