Edwards doctor will keep medical license

Written By Clay Chandler for The Clarion-Ledger

Dr. Carroll Frazier Landrum met with the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure Wednesday and learned he can continue practicing, he said. The agency initiated an investigation into Landrum’s practice early this year. An anonymous complaint triggered the board’s action, Landrum said, though he does not know its details.

Landrum said Wednesday his first contact with the MSBML was a visit from an investigator, who asked him to surrender his license within a week.

“I decided immediately I wasn’t doing that,” Landrum said during a news conference Wednesday at a Madison law firm.

The thrust of Wednesday’s meeting was the board wanting assurances Landrum could keep proper track of his patients’ medical records while he practiced out of his Toyota Camry, he said. He’ll take a refresher course in medical record-keeping to do that, Landrum said.

The lack of a clinical setting to store those records will not be a problem much longer. Volunteers are renovating Edwards’ old post office into an office that should be ready for occupancy “in two to three weeks,” Landrum said.

Landrum, 89, spent two years as an Air Force doctor after graduating from Tulane University’s school of medicine. His private practice took an unorthodox turn two years ago, when he closed his office in Edwards because of a rise in drug-related crime in the area, he said. “I was told my life was in danger.”

Since, he has seen three to four patients a day out of his Camry, often charging them little to nothing for basic medical evaluations.

The state board’s actions jeopardized that, potentially leaving Edwards without a practicing physician, said Christina Sandefur, a senior attorney with the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank that has represented Landrum since January.

The institute asked the medical licensure board in February for records related to the Landrum investigation. Sandefur said Wednesday the board has turned over some of those records, including documents outlining prescriptions Landrum wrote. The institute is still pursuing audio of Landrum’s meeting with the board’s investigator, something there is legitimate reason to believe exists, Sandefur said. The licensure board initially declined to turn over any of its investigative records, the Goldwater Institute said in February.

The records tug-of-war would likely end if the board acknowledged its investigation into Landrum had concluded, Sandefur said Wednesday.

Whether it has is unclear. Board executive director Dr. Vann Craig said he would not comment unless Landrum publicly discussed his version of events. Told the doctor had just wrapped a news conference on the matter, Craig said, “Well, maybe I’ll see it on the news this afternoon and I can comment after that.” He then hung up on a reporter.

Sandefur said the tone of Wednesday’s meeting was pleasant, marking a departure from prior interactions between the board, Landrum and his representatives. “We think it’s very important for the public to be aware of what the government is doing generally,” she said.

Since the board’s investigation began, more than 80,000 patients, medical professionals and community members have signed an online petition supporting Landrum.

Contact Clay Chandler at (601) 961-7264 or cchandler@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @claychand on Twitter.