Jeffrey Rohlfing, MD, a prison doctor who was paid more than $777,000 in 2010 despite not having treated a patient for six years because of alleged incompetence, was cleared to start examining inmates again Monday. Rohlfing has not treated an inmate since fellow prison doctors revoked his clinical privileges in 2005 after finding his care for two patients who showed signs of heart trouble to be "significantly substandard." Although neither patient died or suffered lasting harm, Rohlfing was placed on paid leave for 18 months, then fired in 2007. But the State Personnel board ordered Rohlfing, who has a history of serious psychiatric problems, reinstated in late 2009 with back pay for the years he spent appealing his termination. Upon his return to work, prison medical staff still didn't trust him with patients, so he spent 2010 and most of this year relegated to reviewing paper medical histories -- what fellow prison doctors call "mailroom" duty. He was also enrolled in a retraining program for troubled doctors designed to let other physicians evaluate their clinical skills. In 2010 he collected a total of $777,423. About a third of that was his base salary of $235,740; the rest was back pay.
