MI- Legislators push to bar licenses for convicted health care workers

3-4-2009 Michigan:

A former Farmington Hills dentist OK'd to resume his practice despite a 2002 conviction for sexually assaulting a patient is the target of legislation announced Wednesday to bar license reinstatement for health care professionals convicted of sex crimes.

State Rep. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, who with Rep. Bettie Cook Scott, D-Detroit, is sponsoring the ban, said giving a convicted sexual predator renewed access to patients and potential victims is "outrageous ... horrendous. It shouldn't be allowed to happen."

Dentist Donald Quinn, now 51, was accused of drugging a 27-year-old patient and keeping her in his apartment as a sex slave in 2001.

After briefly fleeing the country, Quinn was apprehended in Pennsylvania, returned to Michigan and sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to reduced charges.

The state Board of Dentistry OK'd a restricted license for him to resume practice in 2007. Quinn, whose license also was suspended in 1987 for drug violations, apparently is working in Tuscola County. A call to his office there was not returned Wednesday.

Department of Community Health spokesman James McCurtis said Quinn's limited license prohibits him from possessing or prescribing controlled substances and requires that he work under the direct, on-site supervision of another dentist approved by the department. MDCH has not taken a position on the legislative proposal, he said. ..News Source.. by DAWSON BELL