Lawmaker doc fined for videoconferencing from operating room

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Maryland state lawmaker who is a plastic surgeon has been fined $15,000 and reprimanded for twice participating in legislative meetings via videoconference from an operating room during surgery.

Del. Terri Hill signed a consent order this month agreeing to the disciplinary actions from the Maryland Board of Physicians, which found the Democratic lawmaker guilty of “unprofessional conduct in the practice of medicine.”

The board noted that Hill participated in one voting session of a House committee while appearing in a video feed wearing “a surgical gown, facemask, and surgical cap.”

In Maryland’s legislative session this year, legislative committee meetings were held by videoconference due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The public was able to livestream the meetings and hearings.

“She was positioned under the surgical lights, focused downward, and would occasionally shift, reach for surgical instruments, or adjust the lights,” the board’s report said, noting the surgeon and other operating room staff “occasionally moved surgical equipment and blood-stained towels so that they were briefly visible on the video feed.”

Reached by phone Friday by The Associated Press, Hill said she would call back but didn’t immediately comment on the board’s actions.

The board received a complaint in March after someone cited a newspaper article in The Baltimore Sun about the lawmaker's committee appearances from the operating room. The board opened an investigation later that month.

In April, Hill told a disciplinary panel that she attended two committee meetings by videoconference, once in February to testify for less than three minutes on a bill she was sponsoring and again in March. She said that before the surgeries, each patient “gave permission” for her to join...