Business ProfileforSouth View Medical Arts

The following describes a pending government action that has been formally brought by a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are providing a summary of the governments allegations, which have not yet been proven.

On December 4, 2020, the Oregon Medical Board issued an order of emergency suspension of the medical license of Steven Arthur LaTulippe, M.D., until otherwise ordered by the Board, due to the Board's concern for the safety and welfare of his current and future patients. The Board found Dr. LaTulippe engaged in unprofessional conduct or dishonorable conduct, as defined in ORS 677.188(4)(a), as conduct that is contrary to medical ethics and does or might constitute a danger to the health or safety of the public and committed multiple acts of negligence and gross negligence in the practice of medicine as follows:

• telling a patient who requested a COVID-19 test that symptom-free persons should not be tested, that wearing a mask does not prevent transmission of COVID-19, and not to self-isolate because being around other people would produce immunity to COVID-19
• refusing, along with staff, to wear a mask in the clinic and urging people who enter the clinic to remove their masks
• regularly telling his patients that masks are ineffective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and should not be worn
• discharging a patient who questioned the appropriateness of his advice that, because virus particles are so small, they will pass through the recommended N95 masks and most other face coverings people are wearing
• directing patients to a YouTube video providing false information about mask-wearing
• regularly advising, particularly his elderly and pediatric patients, that it is "very dangerous" to wear masks because masks exacerbate COPD and asthma and cause or contribute to multiple serious health conditions, including, but not limited to, heart attacks, strokes, collapsed lungs, MRSA, pneumonia, and hypertension
• asserting that masks are likely to harm patients by increasing the body's carbon dioxide content through rebreathing of gas trapped behind a mask
• having COVID-19 protocols for his clinic that call for patients to be masked only if they present with cough, fever or a "suspicious" viral illness and that do not call for any of the health-care providers to wear masks unless these conditions exist
• having signage posted in his clinic asserting the clinic is complying with COVID-19 protocols, but containing no information on what those protocols were

A Board investigator who visited LaTulippe's clinic on December 2 observed that (a) neither patients nor health-care providers were wearing masks, (b) no screening procedures were in place or being conducted (e.g., taking patient temperatures upon or before entering the clinic), (c) no hand sanitizer was available in the waiting area, (d) a sign was posted in the clinic with "warning signs" of carbon dioxide toxicity due to mask-wearing, and (e) an article posted in the clinic that claimed that 94% of the individuals who experience serious effects of COVID-19 have co-morbidities. 

The Board finds Licensee’s continued practice constitutes an immediate danger to the public, and presents a serious danger to the public health and safety as follows:

• During the pandemic, patients will inevitably present to Dr. LaTulippe’s clinic with known, suspected, or occult infection with SARS-CoV-2; and
• Such patients present a clear and present health risk to other patients and staff; and
• Dr. LaTulippe’s active discouragement of mask wearing by patients and elimination of mask wearing by staff and Licensee represent a failure to take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of transmission, thereby posing an unnecessary and preventable risk to patients, staff, and Licensee; and
• Dr. LaTulippe’s instruction and example to patients to shun masks actively promotes transmission of the virus within the extended community; and
• Dr. LaTulippe’s advice to patients regarding the failure of masks to prevent viral transmission and potential patient harm due to masks, are counter to basic principles of epidemiology and physiology and undermine acceptability among Dr. LaTulippe’s patients and the general populace of one of the primary measures known to significantly diminish viral transmission; and
• Dr. LaTulippe’s OHP patients are assigned to physicians by OHP and, if assigned to Dr. LaTulippe, have limited ability to transfer their care to a different provider. These particularly vulnerable patients are, therefore, largely forced to endure Dr. LaTulippe’s unsafe practices while his medical license remains active.

Dr. LaTulippe has a right to a formal hearing to contest this suspension order.  The written request for hearing must be received within 90 days from the date this order is served on Licensee personally or mailed by certified mail.

For more information, please contact the Oregon Medical Board at 971-673-2700 or https://www.oregon.gov/omb/Pages/default.aspx