Doctor gets more severe punishment than DesJarlais

U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais got a slap on the wrist for a sexual relationship with two patients compared to the punishment recently handed down against a Murfreesboro doctor who had a fling with only one patient.

The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners revoked the license of Dr. Brad Blankenship and fined him $5,000 after he voluntarily stopped practicing medicine, submitted to behavioral evaluation for physicians and then underwent an inpatient treatment program for people in professional occupations.

That punishment compares to a $500 fine and a reprimand for the congressman.

The revocation of the Murfreesboro doctor's license occurred two years after DesJarlais's reprimand.

Neither the The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners nor the office of DesJarlais responded to inquiries made by The Tennessean about the disparity in disciplinary actions.

Blankenship prescribed controlled substances to the woman, records show. DesJarlais also prescribed controlled substances to women while having affairs with them, according to documents.

Divorce records in the case between DesJarlais and his first wife includes testimony that DesJarlais pressured a patient with whom he'd had a romantic relationship to seek an abortion and prescribed pain medication to a second woman while they dated.

But the disciplinary order issued against DesJarlais makes no mention of any medicine being prescribed. That order was handed down in 2013 for sexual misconduct that occurred in 2000.

"No documentation exists to show whether or not the physician-patient relationship was severed prior to the commencement of a romantic relationship with either female patient," the DesJarlais order stated.

Despite the revelations of sexual misconduct, DesJarlais was re-elected last year to a third term in Congress.

Blankenship practices internal medicine. The order against Blankenship, which he signed, clearly spells out a sexual relationship occurring while he was treating the patient and prescribing pain pills.

The patient had acute medical conditions that included chronic pain, according to the order. Blankenship had been the woman's doctor since 2009 and did not start having a sexual relationship until four years later. He told examiners the medicine was not prescribed in exchange for sex.

The relationship occurred between October 2013 and January 2014.

Blankenship previously was disciplined by the Tennessee Board of Medicine Examiners in 2009 when his license was put on probation for two years for failing to properly supervise the use of lasers and other cosmetic procedures by unlicensed staff at a Brentwood med spa.

Reach Tom Wilemon at 615-726-5961 and on Twitter @TomWilemon.