The medical director of the Maryland State Police resigned Friday, as he faces discipline from a state physicians’ board for his involvement with a Baltimore County erectile dysfunction clinic.
The Maryland Board of Physicians charged Dr. Donald William Alves in December with unprofessional conduct and practicing medicine with an unauthorized person, according to board records.
Alves is set to appear before a disciplinary committee March 22 and could receive sanctions, including having his license revoked or paying monetary penalties.
He received an annual salary of $289,832, according to the state police. As the department’s chief medical official, he was charged with giving physicals and reviewing medical retirements, among other duties.
In complaints made to the state physicians board in 2020, one patient of the erectile dysfunction clinic said his insurance company called it “a Scam Organization,” and another said he had never been seen by a doctor. A third complaint in 2021 alleged that a staff member who was not a doctor had given him an injection.
Alves, the medical director of the state police since 2009, joined The Guy’s Clinic of Lutherville-Timonium in 2016 to work “one or two days a month,” he told the board.
“It fills [a niche] between the little blue pill, when the oral agents aren’t working, and for individuals who aren’t ready to get surgical procedures done. So it provides them with injection therapy,” Alves told board staff last April, according to charging documents.
As of Friday, Alves was listed on the clinic’s website as medical director. Alves told investigators he was unaware that he was being presented as the clinic’s medical director and that he did not serve in that role.
He declined to comment Friday through a family member reached by phone.
Clinic owner Mark Johnson said Friday that he did not know whether Alves was still affiliated with the clinic.
Under a delegation agreement, Alves supervised a physician assistant, Carl Oltman Sr., who also is facing discipline from the board. Oltman could not be reached for comment Friday.
Johnson did not specifically address the charges against Oltman and Alves, but said the board would make its own determination at their respective hearings.
The agreement described Alves’ primary practice areas as urology and internal medicine, which Alves said was an error. He is board certified in emergency medicine, which he identified as his primary practice area, according to records.
Assistant Attorney General Gregory Lockwood wrote in charging documents that Alves was paid $250 a week to supervise and provide guidance to Oltman, but he admitted that he never provided written instructions and only infrequently reviewed charts.
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Injections at the clinic in 2020 led one patient to be hospitalized and suffer “injury to his penis,” according to board records. A specialist told the patient that he would likely require a prosthesis. Staff at the clinic did not contact Alves during the patient’s treatment, according to charging documents.
A 2021 site visit by the Maryland Office of Controlled Substances Administration found that the clinic’s practitioners were dispensing prescriptions without a permit, including giving injections in higher-than-recommended doses that were “involved in medical emergencies” for clinic patients.
The clinic followed a list of scripts and guidelines written by its owner, who is not a medical professional, according to charging documents. Those guidelines included instructions to give patients injections combining “non-FDA approved” medicines that dilate blood vessels and carry a higher risk of permanent tissue damage than pills like Viagra, “to cause the patients to obtain immediate erections.”
The state board of physicians issued a cease-and-desist order in January to another clinic staff member, DeWayne Martin, accusing him of practicing medicine without a license. Martin could not be reached for comment Friday.
Johnson said Martin works as a phlebotomist at the clinic and does not practice medicine.
Since 2012, Alves has worked as an adjunct emergency health professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, according to his LinkedIn profile. His profile said he was a member of the attending emergency medicine faculty at the Johns Hopkins University for 13 years.
A spokesperson for the Maryland State Police said Alves’ resignation was effective Friday.