Anastasia Bigas, RD
Findings of a Panel of the Discipline Committee

On May 15, 2013, a Panel of the Discipline Committee found that Ms. Anastasia Bigas RD committed five acts of professional misconduct.
 
The College and Ms. Bigas filed with the Panel an Agreed Statement of Facts. This is a summary of those facts. Ms. Bigas, who practiced with a Family Health Team, saw the patient once as a client.  Within a day or two, Ms. Bigas and the patient began exchanging personal emails.  Ms. Bigas agreed to meet the patient “off the record”, as suggested by the patient.  This was the first time that Ms. Bigas stated that she had discharged him. They met for the first time 10 days following the patient’s appointment with her at the Family Health Team clinic. Ms. Bigas had not transferred the dietary care of the patient in the event that he needed follow-up care or wanted additional dietetic advice.
 
Within a few weeks of their first meeting, they became sexually intimate. Ms. Bigas obtained, without her employer’s permission, erectile dysfunction drug samples from one of the clinics where she worked and dispensed them to the patient.  During their relationship, Ms, Bigas accessed patient’s health record and provided him with information approximately 11 times. On a few occasions, at the patient’s request, she also accessed his mother’s health record and gave him information from it without the mother’s consent.
 
When it was evident that the patient needed to consult someone about his health and diet, Ms. Bigas advised the patient that she was concerned that another dietitian or his physician might inquire as to why Ms. Bigas could not assist him.  The patient was concerned that his family physician might discover this personal relationship with Ms. Bigas and the patient wanted to protect her.  Ms. Bigas had also told the patient to say that they had met in a coffee shop.   She did so because she did not want people to mistakenly believe that she was in a relationship with an existing client.
 
The College and Ms. Bigas agreed that the above facts demonstrated that Ms. Bigas ‘s conduct was professional misconduct in that Ms Bigas:

1. Breached standards of practice of the profession by entering into an intimate relationship with a client ten days after seeing him a clinical consultation and failed to transfer the patient’s care to another healthcare professional,
2. Accessed the client’s and client’s mother’s medical files without consent,
3. Through her actions, placed herself in a conflict of interest,
4. Dispensed pharmaceutical samples to the client which is contrary to the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, and
5. In doing these things, engaged in disgraceful, dishounourable or unprofessional conduct.

The College and Ms. Bigas filed a joint submission with respect to appropriate penalty and costs. Upon deliberation, the Panel accepted the terms and conditions in the joint submission and imposed the following order:

1. THE  DISCIPLINE  COMMITTEE  FINDS  Anastasia Bigas  guilty  of  professional misconduct within the meaning of paragraph 5 (failing to maintain a standard of practice of the profession); paragraph 11 (practising the profession while in a conflict of interest); paragraph 12 (providing client information without consent); paragraph 32 (contravening the Dietetics Act 1991, the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 or the regulations under either of them); and paragraph 36 (engaging in disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional conduct) of section 1 of Ontario Regulation 680/93, as amended, under the Dietetics Act, 1991.
2. THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE REQUIRES that Ms. Bigas appear before it to be reprimanded on a date to be set by the Registrar.
3. THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE DIRECTS the Registrar to suspend Ms. Bigas’ Certificate of Registration immediately for eight and one-half (8 ½) consecutive months. The suspension shall continue indefinitely until Ms. Bigas complies with the terms, conditions and limitations set out in paragraph 4 of this Order. 
4. THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE DIRECTS the Registrar to impose the following terms, conditions and limitations on Ms. Bigas' Certificate of Registration:
   1. Ms. Bigas must, at her own expense, successfully complete the Professional Problem Based Ethics Course ("ProBE") to be offered by The Center for Personalized Education for Physicians; and
   2. Ms. Bigas must, within 30 days of completing the ProBE course, advise the Registrar in writing that she has completed and passed the course.
5. THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE ORDERS that Ms. Bigas pay the College's costs in the amount of $1,500 to be paid no later than thirty (30) days following her return to practice from suspension.

The Panel concluded that this penalty will deter Ms Bigas and other members from engaging in these or similar acts of professional misconduct and, foremost, it protects the public.  The terms, conditions and limitations on Ms. Bigas’s Certificate of Registration will aid in her remediation and enhance her knowledge of ethical practice.
 
The Panel acknowledged that Ms. Bigas did not have any prior complaints and that she cooperated with the investigation and with joint submissions.