DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Seeks Injunction Against Former Head of B.C.L. Lab

      Regulators with the California Department of Health Services are seeking a preliminary injunction "to shut down a Southern California medical lab owned by the same man who ran B.C.L. Clinical Labs," the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The state shut the Santa Fe Springs-based B.C.L. down in December 1996 after it found that employees were making up the results of prisoner tests for AIDS, hepatitis and other diseases. In July, Ayazur Rahman, former CEO of B.C.L., received a license to operate another company -- Whittier-based American Diagnostic Labs. According to the Chronicle, state health officials say the lab never should have been licensed because of Rahman's history at B.C.L., but the link "apparently went unnoticed" because B.C.L.'s revoked license was held by Rahman's sister. Ken August, a state health department spokesperson, said, "We want to stop him immediately from operating in order to protect the public health." The department will go before the Los Angeles County Superior Court today charging that Rahman has committed numerous offenses at American Diagnostics, including, according to court filings, using "unlicensed and unqualified personnel, including himself, [and] omitting critical elements" in medical tests, thereby creating "unreliable" results. The department is seeking a "temporary restraining order that would force Rahman to close the lab pending an administrative process to revoke his laboratory license." According to the Chronicle, Rahman denied the allegations made against him regarding his tenure at B.C.L. but said he did not have the money to defend himself (Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/26).