WOLKENBERG CONSULTING - Key Persons
Dr. Wolkenberg is a graduate of Emory University, where he received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Neuropsychology. He is a Maryland licensed psychologist and has worked in a broad variety of clinical settings, including psychiatric, geriatric and VA hospitals, nursing homes, and group and individual private practices, in addition to research and academic settings. He has also served as an expert witness in State and Federal court. A principle tenet of his professional work has been to conduct fair, thorough, careful, comprehensive, and reasoned evaluations. For a number of years, he has assessed and, at times, treated health professionals suspected of impairment and/or disruptive behavior for the Board of Physicians, the Physicians Health and Physicians Rehabilitation programs of the Center for a Healthy Maryland, the University of Maryland Hospital Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and Johns Hopkins Hospital's Faculty and Staff Assistance Program_ (FASAP). Additionally, Dr. Wolkenberg has also co-led the first counseling group for physicians accused of disruptive behavior for the Physicians Health Program.
In the course of assessing and treating health care professionals, it became clear that while many referrals are appropriate, others are made based on incomplete information regarding the circumstances surrounding the complaints and sometimes are not well-founded. Often the referring organizations are not always well-equipped to gather the necessary, objective information to aid in making reasonable determinations. Absent reliable behavioral information, interpreting psychological and neuropsychological data is less effective, and the underlying issues - individual and systemic - are harder to address. Dr. Wolkenberg began Wolkenberg Consulting, LLC to permit a more comprehensive approach to information gathering in cases of ambiguous complaints in order to mitigate these issues.
Patricia C. Bramlet, AHFI, has spent more than 18 years in health care investigation and regulation. This includes four years at Med Chi, the last two as Director of the Peer Review Management Department, and seven as Lead Compliance Analyst for the Maryland Board of Physicians. For the past two years, her focus has been on Health Care Fraud investigation for General Dynamics; she is an Accredited Health Care Fraud Investigator. She also has significant experience in IRB management as a Program Management Specialist for the University of Maryland, School of Medicine and for the MedStar Research Institute. Ms. Bramlet has significant experience investigating practitioners, including allegations of substance abuse, sexual misconduct, drug diversion or misprescribing, practicing without a license, providing substandard care and Medicare fraud, waste and abuse.
Ms. Bramlet's success is based on conducting thorough research of the issues at hand including researching provider contracts, organizational policies and procedures, state and federal law and regulations and industry guidelines. Ms. Bramlet has extensive experience conducting interviews in a manner where all individuals are treated with respect and compassion. Ms. Bramlet has presented cases before local, state and federal law enforcement and has provided testimony in administrative and civil hearings. She has a sterling reputation as a fair, thorough, respectful and thoughtful investigator.