INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Medical Licensing Board heard hours of testimony Thursday in the State’s complaint against a Fort Wayne pain clinic physician who is accused of overprescribing narcotics, putting patients unnecessarily at risk.

After a full day of hearing expert witness testimony, the Medical Licensing Board on Thursday night recessed in the disciplinary licensing hearing of Dr. William Hedrick of Fort Wayne. At its next meeting in March, the board will resume the proceeding and hear from additional witnesses.  Dr. Hedrick’s license to practice medicine remains temporarily suspended in the meantime.

During the board’s licensing hearing Thursday, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s office presented the State’s evidence against Hedrick, a Fort Wayne physician who owns and operates the Centers for Pain Relief which has 14 locations in Northern Indiana. According to the State’s complaint, Hedrick and his staff failed to follow appropriate protocol when prescribing addictive narcotics to patients.

“Dr. Hedrick’s dangerous drug mixing practices and preference for prescribing addictive controlled substances do not fall within the safe practice of medicine,” said Deputy Attorney General Gabrielle Owens, Deputy Director of the Attorney General’s Licensing Enforcement and Homeowner Protection. “Although the disciplinary hearing could not be completed in a single day and must resume later, the public will be protected in the interim because Dr. Hedrick is still suspended from practice.”

The Medical Licensing Board’s next regularly scheduled hearing is March 28, but it could schedule the resumption of the Hedrick hearing before that; the next date will be determined soon.

In December 2012, Hedrick agreed to a temporary license suspension and has not been able to practice since then. The Attorney General's office filed a formal licensing complaint with the board which accused Hedrick of using unsafe pain therapies and dangerous drug mixing practices.

The disciplinary licensing action filed by the Attorney General’s Office takes place as the Indiana General Assembly is considering legislation to combat pain clinics that overprescribe addictive narcotic painkillers and put patients at risk. Senate Bill 246, which imposes various new requirements on such clinics, passed unanimously in the Indiana Senate on Monday and advanced to the Indiana House. The legislation was recommended by Attorney General Zoeller, who chairs the state’s Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force.

NOTE: The State’s disciplinary licensing complaint, filed against Dr. William Hedrick with the Indiana Medical Licensing Board on December 21, 2012, is attached.  Also attached is the Summary Suspension Order of December 20.

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