RAPID CITY - The state Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners says it suspended Dr. Jeffrey Allen Buckau, a Rapid City osteopath, over allegations that he was improperly prescribing addictive drugs to his patients.

A statement posted on the board's Web site said the board issued an emergency suspension on July 10, closing Buckau's Mountainside Family Practice office.

State officials wrote that Buckau's license was suspended "for … prescribing intoxicants, narcotics, barbiturates or other habit-forming drugs to his patients in quantities and under circumstances making it apparent to the board that the prescription was not made for legitimate medicinal purposes, or prescribing in a manner or in amounts calculated in the opinion of the board to endanger the well-being of his patients or the public in general."

Officials also said the board will conduct a hearing on whether to cancel, suspend or permanently revoke his license.

A date for the hearing has not been set.

Buckau has not been available for comment. His office at 3625 Fifth St. has been empty for more than a week.

Initially, a voicemail greeting on his office telephone number indicated that Buckau intended to fight the suspension in the courts.

A more recent greeting, however, simply says the office is closed and patients seeking medical records are advised to contact the state Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners.

On its Web site, the state board encourages patients to contact the nearest community health center or seek treatment from another physician.

That's not easy to do, according to one of his patients, Jackie Shaw of Rapid City. After his office was shut down, she has struggled to find a physician or clinic that will effectively treat her chronic pain.

She told the Journal that she suffers migraine headaches, inflamed disks in her back and the effects of a stroke in the past.

She said Buckau had been treating her with daily morphine injections through a port surgically implanted in her chest.

Despite the allegations, Shaw said she stands behind Buckau and she wants to testify on his behalf at his medical board hearing.

She believes Buckau was treating her responsibly and in safe doses.

For Buckau, who has been licensed as an osteopath in South Dakota since 2002, this is not the first time he's run afoul of medical regulators.

He was put on probation in North Dakota in 1999 for making advertising claims that he was "board eligible" for the family-practice specialty when he was not. In July 2001, he voluntarily surrendered his North Dakota license.

When he surrendered his North Dakota license, other states where he held licenses, including Ohio and Pennsylvania, took disciplinary action against him.

One official in Ohio said it is routine for state medical boards to follow suit when a physician who holds licenses in several states is disciplined by another state board.

For more information, visit http://doh.sd.gov /boards/medicine/ or call 367-7781.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com