Rhode Island Doctor Returns to Practice After NCLA Challenges Covid-19 Order

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) shut down Dr. Stephen Skoly’s practice because he refused to comply with the state’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers and spoke out against the mandate. Dr. Skoly has a history of Bell’s Palsy facial paralysis and risked a paralysis recurrence if vaccinated. In addition, Dr. Skoly has naturally acquired immunity to Covid, having recovered from a prior Covid-19 infection. Nonetheless, in October 2021, RIDOH shuttered Dr. Skoly’s 11-person medical facility, preventing him from providing care to hundreds of private patients, as well as to the state’s most vulnerable public patients—the residents of the state’s psychiatric hospital and prison where Dr. Skoly was employed as the only dental surgeon.

On Dr. Skoly’s behalf, NCLA filed a lawsuit against Governor Daniel McKee and Dr. James McDonald, RIDOH’s Interim Director, to force Rhode Island to permit Dr. Skoly to resume practice. In March 2022, after over five months of suspension, and three days before a court hearing where medical experts were to testify to the irrationality of Rhode Island’s conduct, Rhode Island finally relented. It agreed to treat the N95 masked Dr. Skoly the same as other unvaccinated N95 masked workers. Dr. Skoly was permitted to re-assemble his ten-person dental team and return to practice.

However, Dr. Skoly’s case is not over. His lawsuit seeks declaratory relief that Rhode Island violated Dr. Skoly’s constitutional rights, a permanent injunction to prevent Rhode Island from violating his rights again, and damages in part for denying him unemployment insurance during the period of time when he was prevented from practicing.