A Greenwood surgeon has been accused of falsely claiming he is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, but Greenwood Leflore Hospital says the false credential resulted from a clerical error it committed more than a decade ago and was not the fault of Dr. Alain Domkam.
The story emerged Tuesday on The Taxpayers Channel website, www.thetaxpayerschannel.org.
According to John Pittman Hey, the operator of The Taxpayers Channel, an investigation of potentially incorrect information on Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s website, www.glh.org, led him to discover Dr. Alain Domkam’s name, followed by the initials “MD” for “medical doctor” and “FACS” for “fellow of the American College of Surgeons.”
“Surgeons are very proprietary about that credential,” Hey said.
Being a member or fellow of the ACS generally means the surgeon’s education and training, professional qualifications, surgical competence and ethical conduct have passed a rigorous evaluation and have been found consistent with standards established by the college.
Information for membership, including proof of board certification, is provided by individual fellows, according to ACS guidelines and are not continuously verified by the organization.
For a surgeon, the FACS designation means he or she applied for and received the highly respected credential.
In Domkam’s case, the FACS tag has apparently appeared behind his name on the hospital’s website as well as on the sign outside his clinic, Delta Surgical Clinic, owned by Greenwood Leflore Hospital, since he started working for the hospital in 2007.
Hey discovered that Domkam was not a fellow of ACS by searching the organization’s member roster and confirmed by speaking with Deborah Wood, a spokeswoman for the college.
Wood said Domkam would be informed by certified mail that he must not represent himself falsely as a fellow of the ACS and must remove the FACS title from after his name wherever it appears.
Greenwood Leflore Hospital, meanwhile, responded to Hey’s disclosure of the inaccurate credential by saying it’s their fault and quickly wiping FACS off both the website and the clinic sign.
Hospital spokeswoman Key Britt said on Wednesday in a prepared statement:
“Dr. Alain Domkam has been practicing at Greenwood Leflore Hospital since Aug. 15, 2007.
“He is board certified in general surgery and vascular surgery.
“The designation behind his name was a clerical error. His credentials that he submitted never mentioned that he was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
“This designation has been removed from his name on the website and on his clinic office sign.”
But Hey, whose father is a longtime Greenwood physician, is not satisfied.
“That is obviously why it was very important for me to interview Dr. Domkam,” Hey said.
“I asked him, ‘Are you a fellow of the American College of Surgeons?’ and he said, ‘Yes.’”
Hey said he found it hard to believe that Domkam could go into his office every day with the letters FACS plastered on the sign outside the door, not notice a credential that was not earned and not ask that it be removed.
“I considered the possibility that the hospital just said he was a fellow,” Hey said.
But Domkam’s claim in the interview made him think differently.
The investigation brought up another misrepresentation by the hospital, according to Hey, that Domkam is certified in both general surgery and vascular surgery.
A search of the American Board of Surgery’s registry shows that Domkam’s general surgery certification expired on Dec. 31, 2017, and his current status is “not certified.”
Domkam’s vascular surgery certification is up to date.
Maintaining ABS certification is each individual surgeon’s choice and responsibility, according to the ABS website.
Domkam could not be reached for comment.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
The original version of this article contained an incorrect date for when Key Britt released the hospital's statement.
