NORTH CAROLINA VETERINARY MEDICAL BOARD
P.O. BOX 12587
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA 27605
919-733-7689

December 22, 2000

Certified Mail, Return
Receipt Requested

Kevin A. Monce, D.V.M.
P.O. Box 15396
Wilmington, NC  28408

Re:  Complaint No. 00048-2-1

Dear Dr. Monce:

The Veterinary Medical Board has received information which, if true, indicates that you have violated the Veterinary Practice Act, the Administrative Rules of the Board, or both, as set forth below.  Pursuant to Board Rule .0601(a), please respond in writing to the Board concerning this complaint within twenty (20) days of receipt of this letter.  This complaint has been assigned for investigation to Committee on Investigations No. 1.

The allegations of the complaint are:

1. You were first licensed by this Board June 13, 1994.

2.  Your first informed the Board of your association with a veterinary facility December 27, 1994, by means of your 1995 license renewal application.  A copy of this 1995 renewal application is attached hereto as Board Exhibit A.

3. Your 1995 application disclosed that you were then operating a facility known as Veterinary Medicine Referral Hospital at 3319 Chapel Hill Boulevard, Durham, N.C.  The Hospital was reported by you to have opened in August 1994 and to have been inspected by the Board March 16, 1994 "as an emergency clinic."  You reported that it was new and never inspected by the Board as a referral hospital; that a mobile unit was not used; and that the activity status of the facility was "small animals."

4. Prior to commencing the delivery of veterinary medical services at Veterinary Medicine Referral Hospital at the above described address, you did not obtain a practice facility inspection and approval of the facility and approval of the name of the facility as required by the Veterinary Practice Act and Board Rules.

5. The board received your 1996 completed license renewal application January 23, 1996, a copy which is attached hereto as Board Exhibit B.  Your facility name was listed as Veterinary Medicine Referral Hospital in Durham.  You reported that the Hospital opened August, 1994.  You changed the date (compared to the previous year's application) of the last inspection by the Board to "2/94 - Triangle Pet Emergency Treatment Service."  You reported that you were affiliated with Wilmington Animal Emergency Clinic in Wilmington, NC approximately four days per month.

6. As of December 27, 1994, the only veterinary medical facility at 3319 Chapel Hill Boulevard, Durham, inspected and approved by the Board was operated under the name Triangle P.E.T.S., Inc., an emergency facility originally opened in 1989 and inspected as an emergency facility at the current location March 16, 1994.  The mode of practice was limited to small animal emergencies.  The brochures for the facility indicated it was open from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. weekdays, and on weekends from Saturday noon until Monday at 8:00 a.m.  You of course were not listed as a staff veterinarian on the March 16, 1994 Board facility inspection report since you were not then licensed.  However, you were not listed on either the October 19, 1996 or October 30, 1999 Board facility inspection reports as a staff veterinarian.

7.  The Board received your completed 1997 license renewal application February 20, 1997, a copy of which is attached hereto as Board Exhibit C.  The name of your facility and the office address were the same as listed on your previous two license renewal applications.  There was no space on the revised application for information to be provided about previous inspections.

8.  The Board received your completed 1998 license renewal application January 28, 1998, a copy of which is attached hereto as Board Exhibit D.  This renewal application no longer reported the Veterinary Medicine Referral Hospital in Durham, NC as your practice facility address, but listed your practice address as , Cary, NC 27511.  This was the home address you had listed with the Board since your licensure in June, 1994.

9.  You treated Gus, a dog owned by Nancy G. Deas and Edna E. Deas of Raleigh, at your above described Durham facility on at least four occasions between July, 1995 and January, 1996.

10. You used the name Veterinary Medicine Referral Hospital to deliver veterinary medical services at a facility located at 2111 High House Road, Cary, NC at least between December, 1996 and 1998.  The name of this facility was Veterinary Medicine Referral Hospital or, alternatively, may have been Cornerstone Animal Hospital.  At this facility between December 1996 and March, 1998, you rendered veterinary medical treatment and services to Gus and Alex, dogs owned by Nancy G. Deas and Edna E. Deas.  This Cary facility location was never inspected by the Board nor were either of the two alleged names approved by the Board.

11.  The Board received your completed 1999 license renewal application January 22, 1999, a copy of which is attached hereto as Board Exhibit E.  You reported that your practice facility office was VetSound, Inc., , Cary, NC 27511.  Your home address continued to be identified as this address.  A telephone number different from your residence number was listed, and your e-mail address was identified as kmonce@vetsound.com.

12. You met with the Board January 15, 1999 at its invitation to discuss the nature of your veterinary practice.  You represented to the Board that your practice was limited to a veterinary medical consulting service, a service you provided to veterinarians throughout North Carolina at their facilities, as well as consultation through the use of the Internet.  You introduced Ms. Renee Daniel to the Board.  You informed the Board that she was licensed as a sonographer by the State of North Carolina.  You represented to the Board that you and Ms. Daniel worked together in your consultative practice of obtaining ultrasound images of animals, which images would be read and interpreted by you.

13.  The Executive Director of the Board wrote you and Ms. Daniel a letter of April 15, 1999 confirming the information conveyed by you to the Board.  A copy of this April 15 letter from Thomas M. Mickey to you and Ms. Daniel is attached hereto as Board Exhibit F.

14. You treated the Deases' dog Gus on September 8, 1999 inside a mobile trailer owned by VetSound, Inc. while the trailer was on the premises of Durant Road Animal Hospital in Raleigh.  The veterinary medical services were in the nature of a pre-surgery cardio evaluation.  This trailer was owned by a business corporation.  It had not been inspected as required by the Veterinary Practice Act and Board Rules.

15. The Board received your completed 2000 license renewal application January 11, 2000, a copy of which is attached hereto as Board Exhibit G.  You reported VetSound, Inc. as your office name, but both your office and home addresses were changed to 1105 Sturdivant Road, Cary, NC 27511.  Under the application's activity status you checked the block "mobile practice."

16.  On or about January 3, 2000 you provided veterinary medical treatment to the Deases' dog Alex inside the mobile trailer owned by VetSound, Inc. while it was located in the parking lot of Durant Road Animal Hospital.  The veterinary medical services included abdominal ultrasound, abdominocentesis, biopsies of spleen tissue.

17. VetSound, Inc. is a N.C. business corporation founded June 7, 1995, the principal office of which upon incorporation was 505 Bethesda Road, Aberdeen, N.C. Renee D. Daniel was its president.  The corporation reported to the N.C. Secretary of State that its was:  mobile diagnostic veterinary ultrasound service (diagnostic ultrasound for animals).

18. The February, 1998, edition of the BellSouth Yellow Pages for Raleigh, NC included an advertisement on page 1266 for your veterinary medical services.  A copy of this page 1266 is attached hereto as Board Exhibit H.   Your name appears under the facility listed "Veterinary Medicine Referral Hospital" at the address of 2111 High House Road, Cary, NC The advertisement further lists "practice locations in Cary, Raleigh and Wilmington."

Based on the foregoing information you are alleged to have violated the Veterinary Practice Act and/or Board Rules as follows:

1. Board Rule .0207(b)(15), by failing to obtain a Board facility inspection and approval for the "Veterinary Medicine Referral Hospital" at 3319 Chapel Hill Boulevard, Durham, N.C. before you commenced delivering veterinary medical services there, apparently in 1994.  The violations continued during the years 1995, 1996, 1997, and perhaps 1998.

2. Board Rule .0207(b)(15), by not obtaining a Board facility inspection and approval for operating a veterinary practice at 2111 High House Road, Cary, N.C. between 1996 and 1998.

3. Board Rule .0202, by adopting names for your Durham and Cary practice locations, as alleged above, without prior approval of the Board.

4. G.S. § 90-187,11 and .12, by engaging in, and offering to engage in, veterinary medical practice through a business corporation, VetSound, Inc., in 1999 and 2000.

5. The veterinary medical services that you provided through the uninspected mobile trailer, owned by or under the name of VetSound, Inc., violated the Veterinary Practice Act and/or the administrative rules of the Board as follows:

(a) G.S. § 90-187.11, by practicing veterinary medicine through a business corporation, VetSound, Inc., rather than through a professional corporation or other permitted professional business entity authorized by N.C.G.S. Chapter 55B.
(b) Board Rule .0207(b)(15), failing to obtain inspection and approval of the mobile facility prior to your practice of veterinary medicine within it.
(c) Board Rule .0202, by failing to obtain prior approval from the Board for the name of the practice through which you delivered these veterinary services.
(d) Board Rule .0205(1), by making statements and representations to the Veterinary Medical Board in January, 1999 about the nature of your practice which were untrue, or which were so incomplete or inaccurate as to amount to misrepresentations.  You misled the Board by not disclosing your ongoing practice in the mobile facility.
(e) Board Rule .0205(4), by misleading Nancy G. Deas and Edna E. Deas through the implied misrepresentation that the facilities in which you provided veterinary medical services to the Deases' dogs Alex and Gus between 1995 and 2000 were in compliance with the statutes and rules of the Board.
(f) Board Rule .0208, by not complying with the provisions of this Rule for facilities providing limited veterinary services

6. The advertisement of page 1266 of the BellSouth Yellow Pages for 1998 under  your name violated the following Rules or statutory subsections:

(a) Board Rule .0207(b)(15), by soliciting to provide veterinary medical services facilities in Cary, Raleigh and Wilmington without having obtained a Board inspection and approval prior to commencing the operation of the facilities.
(b) Board Rule .0205(4), by impliedly misrepresenting to the public that your facilities in Cary, Raleigh and Wilmington were in compliance with the Veterinary Practice Act and Board Rules with respect to the treatments for services offered.

Please let this letter also serves as the formal demand of the Veterinary Medical Board that you cease and desist any practice of veterinary medicine that is violating, or may violate, the Veterinary Practice Act or Board Rules, or both, until such time as you and facilities that you operate are in compliance with the requirements governing such by the Veterinary Practice Act and Board Rules, including but not limited to those relating to health and sanitary inspections, use of a name other than your own, mobile facility inspection; and delivering veterinary medical services through a statutory permitted business organizational structure.