Each state has its own set of statutes and regulations on licensing doctors, accommodating patients who wish to file complaints, and releasing information about physicians who have been subject to discipline and legal action. On this page, we’re sharing the key findings regarding Kentucky, which we will continue to update as the series progresses.
Key fact: Only “current” board orders relating to actions against a physician’s license are available online. The public must file written Open Records Law requests to obtain other orders.
“[The doctor] underwent an unusual amount of personal stress due to business difficulties, a failing marriage, the untimely passing of his mother and a growing medical practice.”
— The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure, commenting on a doctor accused in a drugs-for-sex scheme that may have had a dozen victims. The doctor completed his probation in September 2014, and the board agreed to restore his license, on a restricted basis, the next month.
Norsworthy was the subject of board orders in 1989, 1990, 1993, 2000 and 2002. He was accused of fondling or cupping women’s breasts during examinations on several different occasions. Two patients said he had sexual intercourse with them after giving them some medication. He denied the allegations.
The board ordered him to undergo counseling and required him to have a chaperone during exams of female patients. Then, after another complaint about inappropriate touching, the board tried to prohibit him from ever examining female patients again.
Norsworthy fought that 2008 order. He tried to discredit the patient and brought in more than 450 signatures of support from the public. The gallery at his hearing was packed with people wearing yellow shirts in support of him.
A court eventually ruled that he would suffer an immediate injury by being restricted from treating female patients, since 70 percent of his patients were women. But the board appealed, and the state Supreme Court upheld the ban.
Then, after a jury trial in 2010, Norsworthy was convicted of intentional disclosure of private medical records; he had accessed private medical information to attack a patient who had filed a sexual abuse grievance against him.
He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Norsworthy was one of about 200 people pardoned by outgoing Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear in December 2015.
Norsworthy told the Journal-Constitution in an interview that the sexual misconduct accusations against him were trumped up and said he is still trying to have his record expunged.
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