Pediatrician to surrender medical license and retire

Dr. Bill Schnall, a prominent Shoreline pediatrician whose license was suspended in August after allegations that he had improper relationships with several adolescent male patients, will permanently surrender his medical license and retire from the practice of medicine.

That will settle a case with the state's Medical Quality Assurance Commission, which was prepared to begin hearings Monday. The board alleged that Schnall violated physician-patient boundaries and standards of medical care with eight male patients. Schnall still faces possible criminal charges and a civil suit.

Schnall continues to "adamantly deny that his interactions with patients have ever been sexually motivated as implied in the initial charges," said a statement from his lawyer, John Gagliardi.

Instead, Schnall chose to surrender his license "rather than subjecting himself, his family, his colleagues and most importantly, the multiple patients that were unwillingly brought into this matter by the State to the stress and public spectacle that likely would attach to a public hearing," the attorney's statement said.

According to Gagliardi, the settlement pared the original list of charges to a single charge that Schnall practiced outside the standard of care by "violating appropriate physician patient boundaries," and makes no reference to sexual motivation.

Donn Moyer, spokesman for the state medical-quality commission, said the settlement agreement would be made public today.

"If we get what we're after — which is putting that person out of practice — they can say what they want," Moyer said. "We would not bring charges if we didn't think we could prove them."

The license surrender will be available to licensing authorities in other states, Moyer noted.

Dan Donohoe, spokesman for King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng, said Wednesday that the Prosecutor's Office was still reviewing the case for possible criminal charges.

And a former patient filed a malpractice suit against Schnall in King County Superior Court in January.

"Justice, for the family I represent, is so much tied to Dr. Schnall not doing this to anybody else," she said.

Schnall, 60, practiced medicine for nearly 30 years, most recently at the Richmond Pediatric Clinic, and also served as president of the medical staff at Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in 2002. He served on the Shoreline School Board from 1989 to 1996.

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com