A 79-year-old Iowa dentist with a long history of disciplinary action has agreed to surrender his license after being accused, for the third time, of stealing a patient’s prescription drugs.
In November, the Iowa Dental Board charged Robert Bruce Cochrane of Fort Dodge with unlawfully possessing or attempting to obtain controlled substances.
According to the board, Cochrane had scheduled a procedure on a patient and asked her to bring to the appointment the medications he had prescribed for her. “It was alleged that certain pills were not returned to the patient at the end of the appointment,” the board claims. “Upon the patient indicating that she was missing pills from her prescription, they were located by (Cochrane) and ultimately returned to the patient.”
The board has not publicly disclosed when or where the alleged actions took place.
As part of a recent settlement agreement with the board, Cochrane has admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to surrender his license.
Cochrane has a lengthy disciplinary history with the board dating back 30 years.
Board records indicate that in 1995, Cochrane admitted diverting controlled substances from his dental practice for his own daily use, in part by over-prescribing drugs for patients and then keeping some of their drugs for himself. At the time, the board also cited what it later called “evidence of substance abuse, including physical symptoms and mistakes when treating patients.”
The board ordered Cochrane to undergo a substance abuse evaluation, suspended his prescribing authority for controlled substances and placed his license on probation. A year later, in 1996, Cochrane entered into a consent order with the board in which he agreed to abstain from the use of all nonprescribed controlled substances.
In 1997, Cochrane allegedly tested positive for nonprescribed hydrocodone, after which he was charged by the board with failing to comply with the 1996 consent order. The charge was later dismissed after the board concluded there was a “strong possibility” the test results stemmed from a metabolite of the codeine Cochrane had been legitimately prescribed.
A few months later, in November 1998, the board expressed several concerns with Cochrane’s “overall management” of his substance abuse recovery. The board noted Cochrane had been prescribed opiates just one year after being diagnosed with opioid dependence by the Mayo Clinic and had also obtained a prescription for hydrocodone less than one year after entering substance-abuse treatment for use of that drug. Cochrane was ordered to select a new physician counselor to assist in his substance-abuse recovery.
After Cochrane challenged that action in court, the board reversed its decision and agreed to dismiss the order. In 2001, the board agreed to terminate Cochrane’s probation.
In 2003, the board charged Cochrane with the inability to practice dentistry with reasonable skill and safety by reason of habitual or excessive use of drugs, and willfully or repeatedly violating a board rule by failing to maintain records of controlled-substance prescriptions.
The board claimed that on at least two occasions, Cochrane issued prescriptions to patients prior to a surgery, then instructed the patients to bring the drugs to his office on the day of the surgery, then returned only a portion of the patients’ medications.
The board also alleged that in 2002, Cochrane had refused a board investigator’s request that he submit to chemical testing for drug use, then admitted he had a “problem” and indicated he was using medications not legally prescribed to him and was again using hydrocodone.
The board again placed Cochrane’s license on probation and ordered him to undergo additional substance abuse treatment. Over the next few years, the board scaled back the terms of that probationary order, first agreeing to reduce the order’s requirements for therapy, then agreeing to reduce the requirements for attendance at meetings of a 12-step program, and then agreeing to eliminate all requirements for group therapy.
In 2008, the board agreed to terminate Cochrane’s probation entirely.
As part of its recent order affirming Cochrane’s agreement to surrender his Iowa dental license, the board stipulated Cochrane will be eligible to seek reinstatement of his license in one year.
