Earlier this week, the Scene reported on messy love life of state Sen. Joey Hensley, a longtime Republican legislator and doctor from Hohenwald who has had or is having (depending on whom you ask) an affair with his nurse, who is also his second cousin.
Of more concern, however, than a pro-life, anti-gay "family values' politician having an affair was that Hensley had been prescribing his lover hydrocodone for "back pain" in doses that concerned her parents. It's murky as to whether this is a direct violation of the state Board of Medical Examiners' policies, but it's certainly not best practice, even if he had not been having a romantic relationship with his nurse.
But that's not the only questionably ethical thing happening in Hensley's office. (And no, we're not talking about him having sex on the premises either.) Hensley's cousin/nurse/girlfriend, Lori Barber, has been working in his office with an Licensed Practical Nurse state license that expired last October. Yet Hensley says the expired license isn’t an issue.
“That doesn’t matter. Why does that matter?” Hensley said, when asked about it earlier this week. “She doesn’t work as an LPN, she does vaccines for children. … You don’t have to be an LPN to work in a doctor’s office. You don’t have to be anything to work in a doctor’s office.”
Tennessee Department of Health spokesperson Shelley Walker notes in an email, “There is no requirement that vaccines can only be administered by particular health professionals.” But she points out that state law “permits a physician to delegate tasks,” saying specifically that, “LPNs are qualified and licensed to administer vaccines and injections to a patient safely with a valid order from a licensed physician or other provider authorized to prescribe.”
So, maybe, if all Barber really was doing in the office since October is administering vaccines and nothing else, she might not be facing a fine as she tries to get her license renewed (a process it seems she has just recently started in the past week or two). However, her husband testified in his deposition prior to the divorce trial that Barber has been providing some of his medical care for the past year — as his former primary care physician was Hensley, whom he understandably did not want to see after finding out about the affair. Again, this is possibly a breach of state guidelines in regards to treating immediate family members.
Of course, it is completely possible that neither Hensley nor Barber have done anything seriously wrong, besides the brief lapse in licensure. Neither party has ever had formal action taken against them, according to state records — although as Walker points out, the Board of Medical Examiners or Board of Nursing cannot take action on its own.
"It is important to note that the process for investigating and disciplining licensed health professionals is a complaint-driven process; the filing of a complaint is what triggers an investigation. We can only investigate situations of which we are made aware," Walker emails, adding people can easily file a complaint about any practitioner with whom they have concern's on the state's website.
