GROVER DOCTOR'S CARE UNDER MICROSCOPE

RALEIGH - Experts on the treatment of pain spent much of Friday
telling the N.C. Medical Board how they felt about the type of care
Dr. Joseph Talley provided his patients.

Dr. Richard L. Rauck of Winston-Salem, who is the state board's
expert witness, told the board he felt Talley's care did not meet
acceptable state standards.

Talley's expert witness, Dr. Straton Hill of Houston, disagreed. He
said Talley had adequate information to make judgments when it came
to providing treatment regimens for his patients.

When a grueling 12-hour session finally recessed Friday night, Talley
said he was still concerned about the process.

"I am no less frightened now than I was before," he said. "But I do
not feel discredited about my own work."

Friday marked the second day of hearings before the N.C. Medical
Board. Board attorneys have accused Talley of deviating from accepted
and prevailing standards of practicing medicine in the way he treats
some patients and prescribes narcotics to them. The hearing is
expected to conclude today.

Talley's medical license could be taken away if the board agrees with
the attorneys' allegations. The federal Drug Enforcement
Administration has already suspended his privileges of prescribing
controlled substances and linked Talley to 23 overdose deaths.
However, Talley has not been charged with a crime.

Rauck spent much of Friday on the witness stand methodically
describing, case by case, the care Talley gave his patients. Rauck
said that in many instances Talley would prescribe powerful narcotics
without providing physical exams to his patients.

He said Talley also did not order laboratory tests, which could help
pinpoint problems and help determine if patients are taking their
medicine.

Hill disagreed with Rauck's conclusions. He said ordering lab tests
to check up on patients for drug abuse went against the trust that
needs to be built between a doctor and a patient.

"It's almost as if your patients are suspects," Hill said. "You do
not introduce an element of suspicion to every patient and say, 'Take
your clothes off and let me strip-search you.'"

Hill said he believes Talley had sufficient information available to
treat the patients. And he said he did not think a doctor should be
punished for failure to conduct a physical examination.

Talley also took the witness stand Friday and discussed the treatment
he gave a number of patients.

He said he was surprised when he learned that one of his patients had
overdosed and was found dead on his kitchen floor.

"I thought everything was going well until his sister told me that he
had died on the kitchen floor," he said.