Sen. Charles J. Levesque, D-Portsmouth, has sponsored a bill to expunge certain disciplinary records.

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The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — With several infractions on his own Health Department record and an investigation under way, state Sen. Leo Blais yesterday acknowledged that he initiated the introduction by a fellow senator of a bill to allow the Department of Health to expunge the disciplinary records of doctors, nurses and many other health-care professionals, including pharmacists like himself.

He said he took the initiative to help three former employees caught some years ago diverting drugs to their own use.

Describing the three as “good people who got into circumstances they shouldn’t have at the time,” Blais said they should have the same opportunities a convicted felon has in Rhode Island to clear their criminal records.

“If as a policy we can forgive convicted felons, why can’t we forgive people who have gone through a bad time and are now trying to turn their lives around, people who are remarried, gotten out of abusive situations and so forth…”

Blais, R-Coventry, said he sought the Rhode Island Medical Society’s support for the bill. Medical society lobbyist Steven R. DeToy subsequently asked Sen. Charles J. Levesque, D-Portsmouth, to introduce it.

Asked if the bill might help his own situation, Blais said: “That was not even in my head … because you and I both know if this bill passed in July and I applied in December, it would be on the front page.” But would he be eligible? “I have no idea. Nor do I care,” he said.

“This is not about Leo Blais. This is about people like my [former] employees,” he said. “I’m like a basketball player. If I made a mistake and it’s a valid mistake, put your head down, raise your hand and take the foul.”

Blais made the comments during an interview yesterday, just before the Senate Judiciary Committee was about to convene for a long evening of hearings on a number of bills, including the one Levesque introduced in February to allow the Health Department to seal the disciplinary records of individuals who have stayed out of trouble for at least five years.

Last year alone, the Health Department censured, suspended or took some other disciplinary action against 308 licensed health-care professionals, including 23 physicians, 39 nurses, 197 nursing assistants, one physical therapist and 17 pharmacists whose infractions are noted — along with Blais’ — on the Health Department Web site.

At the last minute, however, state Health Director David R. Gifford issued a letter slamming the expungement bill, the medical society withdrew its support, and Levesque asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Michael McCaffrey, in front of a reporter, to remove the bill from the committee’s hearing agenda.

Asked why he took that step, Levesque said: “I still think it’s a good idea,” but DeToy “said he didn’t want any confusion or problem over it … [so] ‘if you don’t have any real commitment to the bill, why don’t you pull it?’ ”

Asked if he knew Blais’ role in getting the bill introduced, Levesque said: “You’d have to ask Steven.”

In his own turn, DeToy said: “It was a favor… I was walking through the Senate floor. Somebody asked me if I could get it introduced. I handed it to Senator Levesque and asked him to introduce it.” He would not elaborate, except to say: “I have no idea whether the person who asked me to do that has personal issues … I think it would be irresponsible of me or you or anybody to make that quantum leap.”

A state senator since his first election in November 1992, Blais’ past troubles have from time to time been raised as a campaign issue.

The investigation began in July 1997 in response to complaints from consumers. The Board of Pharmacy, the section of the Health Department that regulates pharmacies, charged Blais with several violations, including errors in dispensing drugs, dispensing drugs without a valid prescription and poor record-keeping.

In one instance, Blais dispensed Haldol, an antipsychotic drug, in 5-milligram doses when the prescription called for one-tenth that amount. In two other cases, another pharmacist in Blais’ Pawtuxet Valley Prescription and Surgical Center made errors. Additional errors were made at his pharmacy and wholesale business.

In 1999, the board acted against three licenses that Blais held as a pharmacist, a pharmacy registrant (the person responsible for a pharmacy) and as a pharmaceutical wholesaler. The board placed Blais on probation for 18 months and ordered him to take a course on pharmacy law and ethics and submit a policy and procedure manual for his wholesale business.

Blais was a member of the board during the initial investigation and he recused himself from the case. His term expired in 1998 and he was not reappointed to the board. His probation was lifted on July 20, 2000.

But the state Health Department confirmed in January that it was investigating a more recent complaint filed against Blais’ pharmacy after a recent inspection. Catherine Cordy, director of pharmacy for the Health Department, would not characterize the complaint or release a copy. Earlier this week, spokeswoman Andrea Bagnall-Degos said the Health Department is “in the process of completing the investigation.”

Asked what it entails, Blais said: “It’s personal. It has nothing to do with my capacity as a senator.”

In his letter to McCaffrey, the Senate Judiciary chairman, Health Director Gifford cited “serious concerns” about expunging “disciplinary records and findings of substandard practice … for 23 different categories of licensed health care providers.” Among his concerns: No other state has such a law, at least in part because “regulatory boards of health care providers rely on each other for full disclosure of previous substandard practice findings.”

Also, federal law requires the reporting of all disciplinary actions taken against a licensed health-care professional to a national database. The database is a permanent record. If such a law were passed here, “the integrity of Rhode Island licensing information and verification could be perceived as compromised.”

And finally, Gifford wrote: “full disclosure on past practice history of a healthcare provider is important information that citizens should have to make informed decisions when choosing a health care provider.”

But Blais, focusing his comments on his three unnamed former employees, said people who make mistakes should not, in his view, “be forever tarred and feathered for one episode … I think that’s something that, for the sake of discussion, has to be brought to the committee … Let’s hear what the objections are.”

kgregg@projo.com