It seems the accusations filed by the California Veterinary Medical Board against Drs. Vince Baker, Jeff Blea and Sarah Graybill Jones were not the first the board made in 2021 based on racetrack practice. In February, the board filed accusation documents against a trio of veterinarians associated with San Francisco Equine. The board claimed it received a complaint in 2017 from the CHRB about Drs. Kim Lewis Kuhlmann, Steven Lee Boyer, and Kenneth Carl Allison prescribing medications to equine patients “per the trainer's instructions, without an examination or medical necessity.”
“The complaint alleged the SFE veterinarians prescribed the medications because the equine patients were entered to race – not to treat any specific condition diagnosed by the veterinarians,” read one accusation document. “The complaint included CHRB veterinarian reports completed by the SFE veterinarians, dated June 2017 through August 2017. The reports showed that the trainers of SFE's equine patients, rather than the SFE veterinarians, made the decisions to prescribe and administer the medications.”
Boyer is accused by the board of negligence, dispensing dangerous drugs without medical necessity, failure to establish a veterinarian-client-patient relationship, failure to keep adequate written records, failure to maintain a prescriber's record in the case of controlled medication, and prohibited veterinary practices. Allison is facing similar charges, with the exception of the controlled medication violation.
Kuhlmann's causes for discipline include negligence, dispensing dangerous drugs without medical necessity, failure to establish a veterinarian-client-patient relationship, prohibited veterinary practices, and purchasing or transferring expired drugs.
Kuhlmann is also alleged to have “manufactured, sold, delivered, held, or offered for sale, drugs that were imitations of commercially available drugs, and therefore misbranded.”
“An extremely large number of compounded drugs were found during the Board inspection,” the document read. “Many of the compounded drugs were commercially obtainable at the same concentrations as ketoprofen, glycopyrrolate, and others.” Kuhlmann also had misbranded drugs and expired drugs, many of which were compounded, according to the board. Those compounds came from Buy-Rite Drugs, Wedgewood Pharmacy, Precision Compounding, US Compounding, Pharmacy Resources Inc., UC Davis, and others.
She's also accused of failing to maintain adequate records for Schedule IV drugs, keeping adequate drug logs, ensuring drugs and biologics were maintained and dispensed legally, or insuring standards for medical waste. Kuhlmann is listed as the licensee manager for the practice, and as such is on the hook for additional requirements regarding overseeing recordkeeping for patients in the practice's care.
The names of the equine patients or human clients were not revealed in the public-facing accusation documents, as is typical in the case of veterinary medical board disciplinary actions.
While many drugs named in the documents were commonly-recognized, legal therapeutic medication, the documents also called into question the legality of some of the substances the veterinarians allegedly administered or prescribed. Some were not FDA-approved, while others are marketed as supplements but considered by California legal definition to be “dangerous drugs.”
Kuhlmann's document also mentioned the use of Stanozolol, an anabolic steroid sold under the brand name of Winstrol. Unlike testosterone, boldenone, and nandrolone, stanozolol does not naturally occur in horses. Stanozolol is not permitted in a horse's system on race day at any level. At the time of the alleged violations, reported stanozolol administration resulted in a horse being placed on the veterinarian's list for 60 days before being permitted to enter races.
All three could face suspension or revocation of their license, requirement to pay the board's expenses for investigation, and fines of not more than $5,000 per violation.
Settlement conferences are on the books for all three veterinarians for April 29, with pre-hearing conference and hearing dates scheduled afterwards.
According to a spokesman for California's Department of Consumer Affairs, hearing dates for Baker and Graybill Jones have not yet been scheduled.
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