UCSF-Fresno hire delayed
Neurologist is accused of inappropriate conduct with students.

By Barbara Anderson / The Fresno Bee
05/13/08 23:24:01


Plans to hire a North Carolina neurologist to lead a UCSF-Fresno neurology center were suspended this week after the doctor was accused of inappropriate conduct with medical students, a university official said.

The University of California at San Francisco is delaying a decision on a faculty appointment for Dr. Jeffrey Rosenfeld until the allegations against him are resolved, said Dr. Joan Voris, UCSF-Fresno associate dean.

Rosenfeld is an expert in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Rosenfeld accepted an offer to start work July 1 as chief of neurology for the Central California Faculty Medical Group, the teaching staff for UCSF-Fresno, the Fresno campus of the university. But obtaining a UCSF faculty appointment is a condition of employment, Voris said.

"What I've been told is any offer of employment is on hold," she said.

Rosenfeld faces allegations made May 7 by the North Carolina Medical Board that he performed inappropriate examinations in 2007 of three female medical students.

Rosenfeld at the time was chair of the neurology department at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C.

The board said the examinations constitute unprofessional conduct.

If the allegations are substantiated, the licensing and regulatory agency could decide to annul, suspend or revoke his license or limit his license to practice medicine and surgery.

The board scheduled a hearing for Aug. 20 on the allegations. Rosenfeld was out of town Tuesday, said a woman who answered the doctor's phone and identified herself as his daughter.

The doctor told The Charlotte Observer in a May 8 story that he was shocked to learn of the allegations, and he maintained the examinations were educational exercises.

UCSF recruited Rosenfeld several months ago, before the board made the allegations public, Voris said. "From a medical standpoint, he's very well known and has a sterling reputation," she said.

Rosenfeld's credentials were impeccable, said Joyce Fields-Keene, executive director of the faculty medical group. Once the university learned of the North Carolina Medical Board allegations, it halted plans for a faculty appointment, Voris said.

"UCSF will not extend a faculty appointment to him given the medical board complaint. At least nothing will happen until that issue is resolved in some way," she said.

The reporter can be reached at banderson@fresnobee.com or(559) 441-6310.
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