ADAM DORIN, MD, MBA, no longer faces charges that he stole propofol and other drugs.

The suburban San Diego hospital that videotaped thousands of women in compromised positions, ostensibly to catch an anesthesiologist suspected of stealing drugs, is facing a public backlash and a civil suit as a result, but the physician at the center of the controversy is no longer facing theft charges.

The Medical Board of California has dropped the theft charges against anesthesiologist Adam Dorin, MD, MBA, but has let stand 2 unrelated charges. It's still seeking to have Dr. Dorin's medical license revoked or suspended, accusing him of having sent fraudulent e-mails in 2012 to the employer of his girlfriend's husband to help her gain an advantage in her divorce proceedings. Duane Admire, Dr. Dorin's lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment on the still-pending charges.

In July 2012, Sharp Grossmont Hospital's Women's Health Center, in La Mesa, Calif., where Dr. Dorin practiced at the time, hired an outside firm to install small video cameras inside computer monitors that were attached to anesthesia carts in 3 operating rooms. It was the beginning of an extensive videotaping operation that lasted nearly a year.

The cameras allegedly captured Dr. Dorin removing vials of drugs, including propofol, and putting them into his scrub top pocket. Meanwhile, they also recorded hundreds of women under anesthesia undergoing C-sections, tubal ligations and other gynecological procedures.

The hospital based its accusations against Dr. Dorin on 12 videotaped clips, but later refused to release thousands of others clips, footage that Dr. Dorin said would exonerate him by showing that he either administered or returned the drugs. He also maintained that it was common for physicians to take drugs from carts when they were needed for emergency C-sections and other procedures — an assertion that was backed up by other physicians.

When Mr. Admire, Dr. Dorin's lawyer, subpoenaed the other nearly 7,000 clips, Sharp Grossmont sought to quash the motion, arguing that to comply with state law, it would have had to notify all the women in the videos. It also said it didn't want to compromise "vulnerable, exposed" patients.

When some of those "vulnerable, exposed" patients became aware that the videotapes existed and that they had been taken without their consent, they filed a class-action civil suit against the hospital. The hospital later issued a public apology, but the suit is still pending.

The medical board did not say why it had dropped the drug charges. Dr. Dorin, a former Outpatient Surgery editorial board member who now practices at Palmdale (Calif.) Regional Medical Center, has claimed that the hospital had a vendetta against him because he'd previously called attention to alleged safety lapses and dishonest conduct on the part of Sharp Grossmont.

Jim Burger