By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

The Florida Department of Health last month filed a complaint against a Kissimmee doctor for providing hundreds of pain pills to 11 patients claiming chronic pain and failing to keep detailed medical records.

Dr. Mark Round, whose practice, Osceola Physician Management Clinic, is at 801 W. Oak St., is accused of writing hundreds of prescriptions for various pain medications including Oxycotin and Lortab without keeping detailed records of each patients’ treatment plan, a violation of Florida’s Administrative Code.

The medical records, the complaint reads, also lack documentation of each controlled substance prescribed to each patient. Round is facing 33 counts against him on this complaint, filed Feb. 18, by the attorney for the State Surgeon General.

The Department of Health is asking the 15-member Board of Medicine impose one or more penalties, including revocation or suspension of Round’s medical license, issuance of an administrative fine and reprimand, probation, remedial education and refund of fees or bills collected.

A receptionist at Osceola Physician Management clinic Thursday said Round had no comment.

The 110-page complaint outlines the charges against Round for each of the 11 patients, identified only by their initials.

According to the complaint, medical records should document the nature and intensity of the patient’s pain and outline a plan for treatment success as well as any pain medications prescribed. The charges against Round claim the doctor failed to include these steps with these 11 patients.

From 2000 to 2006, a patient identified as P.C. in the complaint was treated by Round for lumbar arthritis, chronic pain and anxiety for which he was prescribed over a 16-month period from 2005-06 six prescriptions for 18 different bottles of Oxycotin and 25 bottles of Xanax, in addition to other drugs. Eight prescriptions of 120 tablets each for the muscle-relaxant Soma were issued to P.C. from January to June 2006.

Round also treated the wife, referred to as M.C., for fibromyalgia, herniated discs and pinched nerves, among other ailments.

The compliant states Round failed to monitor P.C.’s pain medication usage, however, it does disclose Round dropped P.C. as a patient once the doctor realized P.C. obtained a bottle of Alprazalam and four refills within a 26-day period.

Many of the controlled substances, according to the complaint, have a high potential for abuse and can lead to physical and psychological dependence.

Another patient, identified as R.H., was treated by Round from 1994 to 2009 for chronic back pain. Over a three-year period from 2006/09, Round issued 145 prescriptions of Hydrocone, 37 prescriptions of Diazepam and 26 prescriptions of oxycodone, among other drugs.

Rounds has a right to a hearing and the Department of Health is requesting reimbursement of funding used to investigate and prosecute the complaint about the doctor.

The Board of Medicine meets bi-monthly, with the next meeting scheduled for March 31-April 2 in Tampa.