The state's medical watchdog panel was wrong to revoke the medical license of an Elgin doctor accused of improper patient treatment, a district judge has ruled.

South Central District Judge Sonna Anderson's order said George Hsu should have his medical license reinstated if he agrees to additional monitoring prescribed by the state Board of Medical Examiners, which licenses and disciplines doctors.

The 12-member panel revoked Hsu's license in November 2004. The panel had temporarily suspended the license about nine months before the revocation.

In two separate complaints, the panel said Hsu, 62, had "engaged in a continued pattern of inappropriate care" with 10 patients.

"The record does not support a determination that the departure from the standard of care is so serious as to justify the revocation of Dr. Hsu's license," Anderson's order said.

Anderson said seven of the cases the board cited as inappropriate care were "not such a serious departure from the norm to justify revocation." She said she did not find any substandard care in two of the cases cited by the board.

"There was substandard care rendered to one patient, but the care was not grossly so," the judge said.

Medical board executive secretary Rolf Sletten said the board can appeal Anderson's decision to the state Supreme Court or follow the order and "impose a monitoring program."

"It's going to be up to the board to decide," he said.

The medical board's attorney, John Olson, has said in the past that additional monitoring for Hsu would not be "practical or appropriate."

Sletten said that in his 23 years with the board, a judge has reversed a panel decision two other times. "In one, the Supreme Court subsequently ruled in favor of the board," he said.

"It is very unusual," Sletten said of Anderson's ruling.

Anderson issued the order on Feb. 24, though Hsu and Sletten said they did not receive it until Tuesday.

"Of course I'm pleased," Hsu said. "Obviously, I felt that this was the decision she should make."

The board said one of Hsu's patients died after a delay in treatment. Hsu also was criticized for not referring patients for advanced medical treatment that he considered a waste of time and money.

Hsu believes he has never provided substandard care to a patient.

"My medical license was not the issue," he said. "I felt that this board is trying to impose their standard and I didn't agree with that standard.

"They believe anything that can be done should be done whether a patient wants it or not," Hsu said. "That's what I was trying to fight."

Hsu said he still owns clinics in Elgin and Glen Ullin, and has hired doctors to run them.

He said he is agreeable to the monitoring suggested by the judge, and would return to work as a doctor if the medical board imposes the monitoring.

"I feel a deep obligation to do that," he said.

Hsu knows he could still be out of work as a doctor for a long time if the board appeals to the state Supreme Court.

"I guess if they appeal, I don't have any choice but to show up" at court, he said.

Hsu said his patients raised about $7,000 to help him fight the board's action. He said he has tallied more than $50,000 in legal bills.

Hsu also was a doctor with the U.S. Army Reserve, where he held the rank of colonel. He said the service urged him to resign his commission after the board revoked his license.

"It was a very embarrassing thing for them," Hsu said. "They really had no choice and I recognized that I was an embarrassment."

Hsu said he has been working as an auto mechanic and has started a highway striping business with his son.

He said he has not had a haircut in the nearly two years since the board first barred him from practicing medicine.

"It was a protest, I suppose," he said. "I'll probably get my hair cut now."