Dr. Devinder Singh Bhatia M.D.Texas Medical Board Complaints

Texas Medical Board Action Against Dr. Devinder S. Bhatia, M.D 6/11/2021

Hospital Malpractice

Texas Medical Board Action against Dr. Devinder S. Bhatia, M.D on 6/11/2021. I have a new interest in what actions from the Texas Medical Board look like. I’m starting with Dr. Bhatia since he is a current sitting TMB member.

Medical Profession Title: Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon

Findings From The Texas Medical Board

To put this in simple terms for everyone, Dr. Bhatia was confronted by an operating rooms nursing staff when he entered into a surgery procedure with his personal beverage container. He contaminated an active operating room with sedated patient on perpose for his personal comfort during surgery.

Now Some Context For This Complaint

Dr. Bhatia was assisting with another surgeon’s surgery. Since Dr. Bhatia is a “Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon” there is a really good chance there was a patient on the operating table with their chest wide open. Its also likely that having a sterile room was important to keep this patient alive.

In the Texas Medical Board documents, there is no text about the primary surgeon on this surgical procedure. As a person that is a patient and not a doctor – I would have expected my primary doctor to protect me from another doctor potentially harming me.

So in the TMB document, apparently this patient was so very lucky to have had a very good surgical nursing staff. There is no mention of the identity of the “nursing staff” or even how many of the nursing staff stood up to Dr. Bhatia.

This is the awesome part. This surgical nursing staff member or members stood up against this Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon in front of the primary surgeon that didn’t do anything….. And they did not back down when Dr. Bhatia tried to argue his ability to bring a beverage into a active surgery.

BIG LOVE to that nursing staff. Thats some top notch nursing. Hopefully they didn’t receive any kind of retaliation for standing up for their patient.

The outcome on this day when Dr. Bhatia took his personal beverage into a sterile operating room was that he was basically replaced with another surgeon. The nursing staff refused to stand down and protected the patient.

All because this sergeon wanted to have his sippy cup in the room during surgery.

There is no mention on how this complaint was brought to the attention of the Texas Medical Board.

Dr. Devinder S. Bhatia, M.D’s History With Texas Medical Board

In 2010 Dr. Bhatia didn’t report to the Texas Medical Board that he was under a ongoing peer review, when he went to renew his Texas Medical License. In the records from the Texas Medical Board, it says that he got in trouble for not informing the Medical Board when he resigned from 2 hospitals in relation to an ongoing peer review.

The TMB document doesn’t say exactly why he was under peer review or why he resigned from the the 2 hospitals. Being that the TMB ordered that Dr. Bhatia attend some CME courses in Ethics and Risk Management – its possible that he was under peer review for doing something that was considered to be unethical and risk management means that there was a possible lawsuit.

If I find more information about this 2014 doctor violation, I will add more details.

The TMB Remedial Plans

In 2014 Dr. Bhatia’s Remedial Plan included:

  • 4 hours of “Continuing Medical Education” (CME) in ethics
  • 4 hours of “Continuing Medical Education” (CME) in risk management
  • Ordered to pay $500 Remedial Plan Fee

This TMB action is simimilar to 8 Hours of Defensive Driving, but for doctors

The 2021 Remedial Plan by the TMB For Contaminating an Operating Room With His Personal Beverage:

  • 4 hours of “Continuing Medical Education” (CME) in Risk Management
  • 4 hours (CME) in Ethics
  • 4 hours (CME) in Communication
  • Ordered to pay $500 Remedial Plan Fee

This TMB action is simimilar to 12 Hours of Defensive Driving, but for doctors

Then in bold letters at the bottom of the Medical Board document:

  • This Remedial Plan Is A Public Record
  • This Remedial Plan Is NON – DISCIPLINARY

This NON – DISCIPLINARY Remedial Plan was signed by Texas Medical Board President , Dr. Sheriff’s Z. Zaafran.

The little this is NON – DISCIPLINARY is a bit disturbing to me. It makes me think that the Texas Medical Board doesn’t think contaminating an active operating room with a personal beverage is a big deal. So a very vulnerable patient sedated and completely defenseless having a surgery – then in walks a surgeon with his drink putting the patient as risk for all kind of bad stuff.

  • Did the Dr. Bhatia ask the patient if they were ok with those additional risk prior to surgery?
  • The surgical nursing staff, were they ok with being forced to protect the patient from a higher ranking co-worker? Was the nursing staff’s employment at risk because of Dr. Bhatia.

Lets Turn The Surgical Patient Into A Human

  • I will use myself as an example: I am a 47 year old FEMALE with 4 adult children. I have 4 granddaughters. I have 4 brothers and 3 sisters.
  • If I was this patient, my husband and children would have been waiting for me in the waiting room.

Or maybe this patient is a much younger 17yr old young man. Maybe his parents are waiting for him in the waiting room with their prayers.

Maybe this was an older woman in her 60s having a chest surgery. Lets say that this woman is the primary care provider for her adult daughter with Down Syndrome.

My point is that every patient that goes into a surgery has thier people and their life. Its not NOTHING for a doctor to purposely add additional health risk for their personal pleasure. Dr. Bhatia knew what he was doing was wrong, and still did it on purpose. This was no accident or mistake it was flat out negligence and disreguard of that patients life.

Did anyone tell this patient or their family what Dr. Bhatia did?

This is NOT ok. Texas Medical Board needs to do better.

Just For Medical Complaint Tracking Purposes:

I want to keep a general tally on which medical professionals are being chosen for Medical Board actions. So I will be listing the hospitals that provide privileges to all of the doctors that have actions taken. I have a feeling that certain medical groups are being overlooked for complaints. So Im going to track it to find out.

Dr. Devinder S. Bhatia, M.D currently has hospital privileges at the following hospitals

  • St. Luke’s Health
  • 17200 St Lukes Way
  • The Woodlands, TX 77384
  • (936) 266-2000
  • Google Review Score of 4.3