Licensing 2001: Notorious Numbers
by Anne Paxton

Number of years that Gerald Barnbaum posed as a California physician after his Illinois pharmacist license was revoked in 1976. 20

Over those years, number of separate times Gerald Barnbaum was sent to California prisons convicted of illegally practicing medicine, grand theft, or involuntary manslaughter: 5

Number of FBI agents and other California law enforcement agents "Dr. Gerald Barnes" examined for Executive Health Group before he was spotted as an impostor and convicted in 1996: 70.

Days following his escape from federal prison this year that Barnbaum, posing as Dr. Gerald Barnes, was arrested at a North Hollywood clinic where he had acquired a job as a doctor: 29.

(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 2/18/01)

Graduates’ percentage pass rate on the Japanese dental exam at which Ohu University dentistry professors receive a cut in pay: 59

Out of 29 Japanese universities with dentistry programs, place of Ohu University in its graduates' performance on the oral hygiene section of the national exam in 1999:  1

Out of 29 Japanese universities with dentistry programs, place of Ohu University in its graduates’ performance on the same questions when they were changed the day before the exam was given in 2000: 29

Number of former dentistry professors at Ohu University who were arrested this year on charges of leaking exam questions to students: 1. (Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, 1/15/2001)

Number of Washington state Supreme Court justices who unanimously rejected Takuji Yamashita’s petition for admission to the bar in 1902, agreeing that excluding people based on race represented a "settled national will": 12

Number of years between the time Takuji Yamashita passed the Washington state bar exam with distinction, and this year, when he was admitted to the state bar: 99

Number of Washington state chief justices who commented this year about Takuji Yamashita, "I just wish the poor guy were alive." 1 (Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2/5/01)

Number of counts of criminal sexual abuse or sexual assault filed October 24, 2001 against Arizona physician Brian Finkel: 17

Number of additional women who came forward between October 24 and November 5 to charge that Finkel had inappropriately touched them: 70

Number of years before taking action that police, osteopathic medical board officials, and prosecutors had received complaints from Phoenix-area women that Finkel had sexually abused them: 17 (Source: Arizona Republic, 11/05/01)

Dollar amount that NJ optometrist John Amabile charged many of his patients for eyeglasses and routine eye exams between 1994 and 1996: 0

Number of patient records Amabile fabricated between 1994 and 1996 to bill insurers for optometric services he did not provide: 997

Length in days of the jury trial in which Amabile was convicted of conspiracy, attempted theft, and falsification of records: 34 (Source: New Jersey Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor)

In hours, length of training for oral examiners of the California Board of Psychology: 1

In a study of the psychology board’s oral exam by the state Office of Examination Resources, proportion of candidates for whom inter-rater reliabilty of the examiners was found to be marginal or unacceptable: 2/4

Of 15 raters in the study, number who failed one candidate who on the real exam had scored midrange and passed: 15

Number of future administrations of the oral exam that the California Office of Examination Resources recommends be held: 0 (Source: California Office of Examination Resources report, July 2001)

Number of painkillers and other pills Dr. Fortune James Williams recently dispensed over a nine-month period in Covington, Kentucky: 2.3 million

Number of drug offenses with which Williams had been previously charged in California: 1

Number of previous drug offenses Williams voluntarily acknowledged in his 1996 application for a Kentucky license: 0

Average percentage of applicants who are found to have criminal backgrounds when medical boards conduct background checks: 3 to 5

Number of states that require national criminal checks on medical license applicants: 6

(Source Associated Press: November 3, 2001)

Number of funeral home inspectors on staff at the Connecticut Department of Public Health: 0

Numbers of years since the Connecticut Department of Public Health has failed to conduct required yearly inspections of funeral homes: 11

Number of decomposed bodies discovered in June in a funeral home garage in New Haven, Connecticut: 5

Length of time in years that the state medical examiner estimates the bodies may have been in the garage: 3 to 5. (source: Hartford Courant, 7/10/01)

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