Kansas State Board of Healing Arts v. Acker

The opinion of the court was delivered by This appeal by Stevens B. Acker, M.D., of Wichita, from a district court decision upholding a decision of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts (Board) to suspend appellant's license to practice medicine for two years culminates nearly ten years of controversy between Dr. Acker on one hand and Wesley Medical Center of Wichita (Wesley), the Medical Society of Sedgwick County (Society) and the Board on the other. Dr. Acker is a graduate of the Kansas University School of Medicine and has been operating a general or family practice in Wichita since 1961. Prior to 1971 he performed general surgery, delivered babies and had general hospital privileges at Wesley and other Wichita hospitals. It appears that in 1971 a dispute arose between Dr. Acker and Wesley over some missing hospital records. Dr. Acker was suspended by Wesley from all admitting privileges, and subsequently other Wichita hospitals followed suit. Dr. Acker has not had hospital privileges in Wichita since the early 1970's. Nevertheless his practice flourished and he developed a substantial general practice with numerous obstetrical patients. Between 1971 and 1977, Dr. Acker sought to regain his Wesley privileges by compliance with certain requests from the Board and the Society but was not successful. Twice during this period of time the Society filed complaints with the Board, but on each occasion the Board declined to take any action.