Alliance for Patient Safety

                            All that is necessary for the triumph of evil...
                                                                ... is for good men to do nothing.

                                                                                                   Edmund Burke

Retaliation Against Lewis Baxter, M.D.

    Lewis R. Baxter, Jr., M.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry at McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at UCLA. Having done research with VA scientists since 1980 (including being the official mentor of VA research training awardees even when not a VA employee himself, by special request of the VA Office of Research), Dr. Baxter did not work for the VA until September 2002, when in addition to his research commitments at UF, he was appointed Chief of Psychiatry of the North Florida / South Georgia VA Healthcare System. Noting poor patient care and financial fraud on his and related services, Baxter initially had good administrative support to make needed multiple changes, under the auspices of the Acting Director. However, shortly after the arrival of the new VISN Director, Mr. Fred Malphurs, in early 2003, Baxter was accused of “creating a hostile work environment”, and removed in the spring of 2003 after he made several reports to the Office of the Inspector General concerning possible felonies. Dr. Baxter claims that multiple perjuries were committed during the VA “hearing” of this matter, a hearing in which he was not allowed to question accusers, nor to present his own witnesses, witnesses who could and would impeach their accusations.