Doctor faces disciplinary action

GREEN BAY - State officials are pursuing formal disciplinary action against the medical director of a Green Bay nursing home.

Officials from the Medical Examining Board accused Fred Walbrun, M.D., of failing to adequately assess the capacity of a patient to make her own health care decisions, while working as medical director of ManorCare Health Services East.

According to the board, staff members at ManorCare were concerned about increasingly combative and delusional behavior by the female patient and a physician at the hospital had asked Walbrun to do a consult for activation of the patient’s power of attorney for health care.

According to the complaint, Walbrun’s evaluation found “no basis to declare her incapacitated at this time.” Two days later, the woman left the facility in a wheelchair, tipping over in a busy intersection nearby where vehicles swerved to avoid hitting her. That night, two physicians concluded the patient was incompetent to make health care decisions and activated a power of attorney for health care. The complaint filed by DRL stated that Walbrun’s care for the patient fell below the standard of the minimally competent physician because he “failed to adequately investigate, consider evidence, and/or recognize that (the patient)…lacked the capacity to manage her own health care decisions.”

Last month, the Medical Examining Board found probable cause that Walbrun acted unprofessionally. He will have a hearing in front of the state Department of Regulation and licensing before any discipline is given.