The primary care provider and internal medical specialist whose license was suspended by the Washington Medical Commission after he was accused of improperly prescribing ivermectin to five COVID-19 patients in Centralia in 2021 has responded to the allegations and his suspension.
"The licensing board ignored all their rules and regulations to go after me for using an off label medication which I and all Drs. have done for the past 40 years," Guito Wingfield wrote in an email to The Chronicle. "No patients that I prescribed Ivermectin filed any complaints to the Board. A new patient that I did not treat for Covid asked my opinion about Ivermectin and he reported me to the commission and they used that to open an investigation."
In a letter to patients dated Oct. 7, the day the Washington Medical Commission issued a news release announcing his medical license had been indefinitely suspended, Wingfield wrote to his patients at Rejuventa Medical in Centralia, criticizing the Washington Medical Commission’s handling of his case.
The Medical Commission issued a final order on July 19, 2023, that, among other conditions, required Wingfield to complete practice reviews with a commission-approved practice monitor. “To date, Dr. Wingfield has not completed the practice reviews,” the state Department of Health said in a news release on Tuesday, Oct. 8.
The state Department of Health said Wingfield’s license was indefinitely suspended after he failed to appear at a Sept. 25 non-compliance hearing.
However, in the letter, Wingfield said he waited an hour for the commission to call him and stated “instead of rescheduling the phone meeting, which I believe that the glitch was on their part since my cellphone was working fine, they revoked my license because they were not able to get hold of me after they tried for five minutes.”
Wingfield also claimed the practice reviews mandated by the Washington Medical Commission would cost him $11,500, or $300 per office visit.
Wingfield said he has had “over 300 charts audited from United Healthcare with no deficiencies,” and said he has received bonuses for quality of care for the last three years.
“As you know, there is a severe shortage of physicians in Lewis County. I want to thank you for allowing me to take care of your health for the past 16 years,” Wingfield wrote to his patients.
In his response to the statement of charges accusing Wingfield of unprofessional conflict by “incompetence, negligence or malpractice,” Wingfield “denied that he had committed any unprofessional conduct in treating (the five COVID-19 patients),” said he “relied on his 35 years of experience in internal medicine in his treatment of the patients” and “pointed out that none of his patients suffered harm and not one of the patients he treated filed any complaints against him here.”
The state Department of Health found that Wingfield failed to inform at least five COVID-19 patients that prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment was not approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration, failed to document that discussion in the patients’ records and failed to document “sufficient rationale for prescribing the medication.”
Wingfield also did not discuss any COVID-19 treatment alternatives with his patients and did not refer patients with severe symptoms and pre-existing conditions to the hospital, the Department of Health claims.
Of the five COVID-19 patients Wingfield treated between August and September 2021, one received emergency room care after their condition worsened and two ultimately required advanced hospital treatment due to COVID-19 complications.
Read Wingfield’s full letter to his patients above.
