Real Medical School?: Centro de Estudios Universitarios, Dominican Republic?

Hi -
I am hoping someone on here can help me. I am trying to find out if there was ever or is now such an institution as "Centro de Estudios Universitarios" in the Dominican Republic - and if it had a Medical School. My sick son had very questionable treatment by a Dr who said she got her Medical Degree from this institution in 1983. Her behavior was so bizzare at the appointment (eg, she refused to examine my son and would not look at any of his medical records), so I looked up her credentials. I cannot find this institution listed anywhere, but perhaps it existed in 1983? If so, did it have a legitimate Medical School?

Obviously, we will not return to this person, but this Dr sees many sick and disabled children and apparently we are not the first ones to have such a horrible experience with her. Unfortunately, some parents have followed her advice and relied on her "expertise" and suffered for it. Therefore, I would like to prevent other children from experiencing this if possible. I realize that MDs who earned their degrees from legitimate medical schools can also give bad advice.

Any help or advice for figuring this out if this person's credentials are legitimate will be most appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

J's Mom

 

My advice to you is, instead of checking her credentials, you should go to the appropriate authority and ask for an investigation on this "Doc". Bottomline is that we don't want any of our children being treated by this person for obvious reason.

 

You should definitely contact the medical board in your state and find out if this person has a license to practice medicine in that state. If not, they will hopefully investigate.

 

Does have a license

Hi -
Thank you for your responses. This Dr does have a license - I checked. She is actually with a supposedly reputable group practice! But I've read other stories where people had fake MDs or other degrees and got licensed, and practiced for years - even decades until someone finally checked up on them.

Medical Boards are notoriously slow on things - ours gives itself up to 7 years to investigate. But if her degree is fake, then it is a lot easier to shut her down (with some help from the media). I think it's suspicious that the only hit one gets in searching for this institution is her CV. There is a similarly named institution in Mexico. But hers was supposedly in the Dominican Republic.

Thanks,

J's Mom

 

CEU

Levicoff, Levicoff, where's Levicoff?

He's a fan of CEU in Monterray.

CEU seems to be a very common university name in Latin America.

 

Re: CEU

I don't know Levicoff, but it sounds like CEU in Dominican Republic may be fake from the (I hope tongue-in-cheek) tone of your message (I hope, I hope)? If this person's degree is fake, it's the most efficient way to shut her down - and she needs to be shut down. Is the one in Monteray legit?

Thanks!

 

Re: CEU

Oops! I went and looked for Levicoff on here and found several long threads on CEU. Obviously scammers. But that wasn't the one in Domincan Republic (not like an MD from Dom Rep screams legitimacy). Does anyone know anything about this Dominican Republic CEU "campus"?

Another interesting note: once you see this "Dr", none of the other Drs in that practice will see you. That isn't the case if you see one of the other Drs first. Makes me think they suspect or know she is not legit and don't want to share a patient w/ her because they could be liable if/when she is finally exposed.

I wrote to DegreeFinders.com and QuackWatch to see if they could help. HOpefully something will pan out. I appreciate any other ideas for chasing this information down.
Thanks

 

http://www.acponline.org/chapters/latin/ca/dr_medsch.htm

This is a web page for the American College of Physicians, listing all the medical schools in the Dominican Republic.

If you have further questions, you might contact the Dominican Embassy.

Good luck to you.

 

smpants

CEU in Monterray is legit. An American operation that offered programs that were supposed to earn CEU degrees was not.

Medical schools in the Caribbean may come and go. CEU was not in a list of foreign medical schools in the 1992 edition of Bear's Guide but I don't think Dr. Bear claims any expertise in this area.

 

It's interesting that Espinosa is described as "Board eligible" rather than "Board certified" (which is the description used for her colleagues at the Minneapolis Clinic of Neurology).

 

ROFL! You figured out who I was talking about. I guess it's not difficult since it's the only search hit you get when you put in the medical school name.

Yes - that is interesting about the boards - isn't it? I'm embarrassed that I never thought to check her credentials, but she has been practicing here for awhile and her group is supposedly reputable. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of pediatric neurologists - especially around here.

 

Foreign Credentials

My concern about this discussion thread is the implied notion that a foreign credential (especially from south of the border) is inherently a suspect thing: (that is, guilty until proven innocent). I find that distasteful and smacks of a racist/chauvinistic attitude.

In this specific scenerio, I would think that one ought not immediately find fault with credentials of a said professional, rather one ought to question the competent authority(ies) that allows him/her to practice. I find it interesting that one is ready to blame someone outside the border more easily than within when the latter is more guilty (if in deed authorization to practice has been given). But, if it has not, still, it is the responsibility of native authority to combat such abuse.

My two cents.

KKA

 

Re: Foreign Credentials

I didn't automatically dismiss this Dr simply because she got her degree in the Carribean. I started looking into this person's background because of her bizarre behavior at our appointment.

I actually started looking into her background and training wondering if she even had a degree or if she graduated from where she said she did. I was very surprised to discover that I could not find her stated Medical School ANYWHERE - I've looked on every list imaginable and it doesn't exist. I do not really care WHERE this medical school was said to exist - if she said she got her degree from a medical school in the US and I couldn't locate the medical school ANYwhere, I would have the same concerns. FIU is legitimate, but I am still questioning her degrees from there - nothing to do with FIU.

There are problems with some of the Carribean Medical schools as well as medical schools in other countries, including the US, which is why various groups and organizations have tried to establish some basic standards (there is even a Carribean group that does this - but CEU in DR is not listed with them). Legitimate institutions should be recognized, but illegitimate ones should be exposed.

The objective facts are that this person it not board certified, she charged our insurance company for an examination and consultation that she never performed (fraud), fabricated many medical statistics in a letter to our pediatrician, and her medical school does not seem to exist. It is my subjective opinion that this person is bad news and should not be seeing sick children who need real medical help. This has nothing to do with prejudice. My father is an immigrant and some of the best Drs we have seen are foreign-trained. This Dr is bad news no matter where she comes from or was supposedly trained (if indeed she was trained).

I agree with you that it is the job of the licensing authorities and other authorities to make sure that a person is properly trained and competent before issuing a license. But, that argument is not going to get me far in stopping this person from doing to more people what she did to us; they will simply circle the wagons. We all know it's not an ideal world and the authorities charged with watching over things some times fail their duty. They have to be given very good reasons to admit they were wrong and change their minds. I've seen many Drs retain their licenses on worse charges. So, I have no confidence that anything will result from me submitting a complaint to the Medical Board about our experience. I need strong, objective evidence that they can't ignore to demonstrate her incompetence. If she doesn't have a medical degree, it takes it out of the arena of "complaining parent who won't accept the fate of her son" or my subjective opionion about this Dr.

As things stand, I still have no idea whether this CEU Medical School located in Dominican Republic ever existed in 1983. It certainly doesn't seem to exist now. I will file a complaint with the board no matter what I find -on the basis of her behavior and frauduently charging our insurance company - and not hold my breath waiting anything will be done after up to 7 yrs of "investigation". But, it would be sooo much nicer and easier to file a complaint that I know they will HAVE to act on.

 

CETEC - I feel vindicated

Ok - finally found something. Espinosa lists a different medical school for her Hennepin Cty Medical Society listing (vs what she has listed for Mpls Clinic of Neurology page - maybe she forgot the name?):

http://www.hmsdoctors.com/

Armantina M. Espinosa, M.D.Child Neurology675 East Nicollet Boulevard, Suite 100Burnsville, MN 55337 < map > Phone: (952) 435-8516Fax: (952) 435-8518
Medical School: · Universidad C.E.T.E.C., Escuela de Medicina, Santo Domingo, 1983Affiliations: · Hennepin County Medical SocietyClinic Affiliations: · The Minneapolis Clinic of Neurology, Ltd.



Now here is an article about that Dr Goldberg - a Dr who got practiced bad medicine in AZ. He went to the SAME PLACE and graduated in the same year (Universidad C.E.T.E.C., Escuela de Medicina, Santo Domingo, 1983) and it was shut down the next year. I found a few people on searches who went to this "medical school" and they all just happened to get their degree in 1983!

Espinosa also says she is a member of AMA, which claims to list almost every practicing licensend physcian. Her name doesn't come up when you search though!

http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/bomex/0821b-goldberg2.html.

<snip>
Getting an education
Goldberg never graduated from college, according to his testimony in legal documents.
A New York City native, he attended a community college and a state university in Los Angeles, but left without a degree to pursue a career in medicine.
To do that, he went to the Caribbean, where he attended Universidad C.E.T.E.C. Escuela de Medicina in the Dominican Republic.


He graduated from medical school in 1983, and the next year, the school closed after revelations that officials were selling medical degrees for $5,000 to $50,000.
"You can pay for anything you want here - diplomas, transcripts, grades, anything," Roger Heil, a New York medical student, told a reporter in 1984 when the medical school and another in Santo Domingo were shut down by the government.
Some students never attended classes; they just paid tuition and got their degrees, Dominican Republic officials said in news reports at the time.
In his written statement, Goldberg acknowledged that his medical school was shut down.
"I would like to point out that the school was accredited during the period I attended there and that I spent the last two years of medical school in an exchange program attending the University of Maryland affiliated hospitals," he wrote.
<snip>

Say what you want - PC or not - I feel vindicated.

J's Mom

 

More links:

http://www.ncahf.org/digest02/02-14.html

http://www.chirobase.org/15News/holder.html

http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/theodore.html {a winner!}

http://www.medbd.ca.gov/Unapproved_Med_School

http://www.state.in.us/hpb/boards/mlbi/instin

http://www.dr1.com/news/1998/dnews021698.shtm

 

Thanks Uncle Janko!

Thank you! I really appreciate your help.

J's Mom

 

Re: Foreign Credentials

I have a 10 year old plus listing of pass rates on US exams of foreign medical school students. Several Dominican Republic schools had pass rates in the 10 - 15 % range.

There is nothing implied, Caribbean schools are worse than American schools.

Racism/chauvinism to object to schools set up in third world countries catering to students that can't get into American medical schools because they are too stupid. Believe what you will.

 

Yebo, KKA, but nobody even brought up the University of Windsor.

 

But it's for real. It may be south of Detroit but it's not that far south.

 

Ever thought of contacting the various daily or weekly newspaper editors in the Dominican Republic.
Corruption is more likely ( paying for degrees or marks) to happen in a poor country than in a well developed country.