(FRAZIER PARK, May 8 10:50 a.m.) Effective May 7, 2009, at 5 p.m., the license of JOHN FRANCIS GRANT, M.D. (A 63101), with an address of record in Frazier Park, CA, was placed on four years probation. As a condition of his probation, Dr. Grant (who changed his name from Garcia) is prohibited from supervising physician assistants.

Grant, a resident of the Mountain Communities, was serving at a clinic in the Palmdale/Lancaster area in 2008. On September 26, 2008 we reported the investigation regarding charges that had been made against him. The following week, the doctor’s wife, Melissa Grant, provided additional background regarding what the couple says led to the medical board investigations. Melissa Grant said she served as an office employee in Grant’s former practice in Riverside County before they were married.

In the report published by The Mountain Enterprise on October 3, 2008:

“This accusation has nothing to do with Clinica Sierra Vista or services in Frazier Park,” Melissa Grant said in her Sunday call. “This is about one patient, one person in 2004 who was, we believe, calling in prescription refills for herself….”

Grant said a DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] representative met with Dr. Grant four years ago, and “he [Dr. Grant] gave the information and records he had on the patient. The DEA did its investigation and the matter was apparently closed. We understood it was the patient that was being investigated. This was in 2004.“

Using a “CURES report” the DEA learned that the patient in question was “doctor shopping,” using multiple doctors and multiple pharmacies to secure narcotic prescription drugs.

“That DEA complaint was against the patient, not against Dr. Grant, and it was four years ago,” Melissa Grant repeated, adding emphatically, “We had no idea there was any investigation on Dr. Grant at all until we got a letter from the Medical Board.

“This made it look like he is a bad doctor and that he over-prescribes. That is not true—the DEA has renewed his license and his medical license has not been restricted in any way.”

Grant said that her husband had a thriving practice in Riverside County for seven years, “with 4,000 patients,” but was involved in a bitter divorce and custody battle with his former wife that “wiped him out financially,” which led to IRS problems and the eventual closing of the practice. She said they came to the Frazier Mountain area because his family is in Valencia and hers is in Bakersfield.

Melissa Grant also said that her husband’s legal name change from Garcia to Grant took place shortly after he first obtained his medical license, “because although his father is from Spain, his mother is from England and he does not speak any Spanish, but people kept calling him thinking he could provide service in Spanish, and he can’t.”

Grant said her husband is now employed as an urgent care physician in the Palmdale area: “We did house call doctor [in the Mountain Communities] for eight or nine months. We had quite a few patients but not enough to pay the bills….”

In regard to the “inadequate record-keeping” allegations in the Medical Board accusation, Melissa Grant said, “We started doing electronic records. After the DEA request, we gave them all the records, and they were satisfied.” But after the practice was closed, “the computer program we were using…we haven’t been able to get to open anymore; so we are going to subpoena the records we gave to the DEA,” to show that they were complete.

“He has met with the Medical Board representative for additional information but never once did they say there would be an investigation on Dr. Grant. Our attorney spoke with the attorney general’s office and said she wants to settle this without going to trial…It really has to do with the patient. He is a very good and thorough doctor.”
 

This is part of the May 08, 2009 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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