Spokane7
61°
June 25, 2009 in City
Valley physician closes hormone therapy practice
Doctor blames economic factors
Dr. Cheryle Hart, seen in her Spokane Valley office last month, has closed her practice.
(Full-size photo)
Dr. Cheryle Hart has closed her hormone therapy practice.
The Spokane Valley physician ran Hormones by Hart and recruited thousands of women to attend her seminars across several states. Her personal and professional financial problems resulted in lawsuits and bank account garnishments and were exacerbated by reprimands and licensure problems in three states.
In a letter to patients, Hart blamed the economy for the closure of her practice.
Her husband and business manager, Ronald Grossman, said Hart plans to fulfill obligations to patients who have paid fees for future services and that she’s attempting to find another practice to join, possibly in California.
Grossman said he believes newspaper coverage of Hart’s difficulties made it hard for Hormones by Hart to recruit new patients.
Hart surrendered her license to practice medicine in Montana after a series of regulatory problems there. She responded to complaints lodged against her in Idaho by ceasing to practice in that state, but patients in Idaho could continue to visit her Spokane office for hormone treatment and consultation.
She was reprimanded in the past year by the Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commission and has several conditions placed on her license.
There are three complaints against Hart on file with the medical commission in Washington, according to the Department of Health. The nature of complaints is confidential unless regulators take action.
Several of Hart’s new patients in California contacted The Spokesman-Review to complain about follow-up service in the wake of seminars Hart conducted there in April.
“She came here, recruited dozens of women who paid $750 and up for her seminar, and then left town and doesn’t return our phone calls,” said Tena Falkenberg, of Turlock, Calif. Falkenberg said she eventually received a return call after she sent an e-mail threatening to report Dr. Hart to the Better Business Bureau or California’s medical board.
“I feel like I was taken, and that’s just not right,” Falkenberg said. “She shouldn’t have been allowed to do this.”
Grossman said Hormones by Hart will conclude all of its programs by Aug. 30.
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pattyann on October 07 at 4:52 p.m.
Yet another flagrantly untrue story. As a patient of Dr. Hart’s I happen to know that she’s an exemplary physician. Her so-called reprimands by medical boards cited in the story were the medical equivalent of a parking ticket instigated by physicians in local towns where she lectured who didn’t want any competition. She gives her patients far more advice and care than their regular physicians. For example, I have quarterly blood panels done by her, and my regular doctor has not done a blood panel in more than four years. This article seems to border on libel to me. Mr. Stuckey has written a flagrantly biased article that does a disservice to the community. He’s put a slant on the facts that is truly despicable. When is the last time you spent more than 15 minutes with your doctor? I have literally spent hours with Dr. Hart over the past couple of years, being educated and having my questions answered. Can you say that about your Dr?
WilliamM on October 07 at 5:52 p.m.
The series of articles in the Spokane Spokesman about Dr. Hart constituted an amost libelous attack. It was a very unfair and unbalanced journalism that was long on sensationalism and short on balance. Dr. Hart was never questioned by any authority such as the state medical board or the like for any malpractice. Her medical treatments were never in any way questionable. She practices medicine intelligently, providing her patients with maximum personalized attention and using the most advanced knowledge.
She was slapped on the wrist for administrative issues such as not having records that she had requested but not received from another, perhaps uncooperative, doctor. It would seem that that doctor should be reprimanded, not Dr. Hart. She chose to close her office. It was not closed against her will. The Spokeman has made it seem that Dr. Hart is an unqualified doctor and nothing could be further from the truth.