The Iowa Board of Medicine regulates the state’s medical profession as part of the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing. (Photo by Getty Images, board seal courtesy the State of Iowa)
Six years after an Iowa City physician allegedly failed to properly prescribe medications to patients, the state Board of Medicine has placed her license on probation.
Board records indicate Dr. Minyon Rittgers-Easton was employed by Mercy-Iowa City in family medicine beginning in December 2016.
While working there, she allegedly provided medical services to the Amish community for several years but failed to properly chart the prescriptions given to the patients she saw, either in an electronic medical record system or on paper.
According to the board, she also provided “a large number of free samples of an anti-depressant drug” to a Mercy-Iowa City patient without ever charting the medications.
The board initiated an investigation in 2019. Last month, the board charged Rittgers-Easton with improperly prescribing medications by failing to keep a record of all the prescription drugs she dispensed.
At the same time, the board agreed to dispose of the matter by issuing a citation and warning and placing Rittgers-Easton’s license on probation for one year. As part of her probation, she is required to take an unspecified number of hours of educational training in documentation and record keeping.
She will also be required to provide a Board of Medicine case manager with quarterly reports that include all patient prescription records.
Rittgers-Easton declined to comment on the case when contacted Monday at the MRE Family Care Clinic in Iowa City.