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Showing posts with label Psychiatrist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psychiatrist. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Former San Diego psychiatrist won't see jail time after admitting to sexual contact with patients

Mark Saunders
www.10news.com
Originally posted January 18, 2019

A former San Diego County psychiatrist who admitted to having sexual contact with seven female patients during office visits and sexual battery will not see any jail time.

Leon Fajerman, 75, was not sentenced to any jail time during his sentencing hearing Friday. Instead, the judge ordered Fajerman to serve house arrest for a year, pay an undetermined amount of restitution, and he must register as a sex offender.

He is eligible to have an ankle bracelet removed after six months of house arrest, pending good behavior.

Friday, victim impact statement's were read in court by the victims' attorney, who called the sentencing of no jail time absurd. Jessica Pride, an attorney representing two victims said they suffered from, “post-traumatic stress disorder, they are also suffering from anxiety, night terrors, insomnia, suicidal ideations.”

The info is here.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Psychiatry’s “Goldwater Rule” has never met a test like Donald Trump

Brian Resnick
Vox.com
Originally published May 25, 2017

Here is an excerpt:

Some psychiatrists are saying it’s time to rethink this core ethical guideline. The rule, they say, is acting like a gag order, preventing qualified psychiatrists from giving the public important perspective on the mental health of a president whose behavior is out of step with any other president in history.

“The public has a right to medical and psychiatric knowledge about its leaders — at least in a democracy,” Nassir Ghaemi, a Tufts University psychiatrist, recently argued at an APA conference. “Why can’t we have a reasoned scientific discussion on this matter? Why do we just have complete censorship?”

The controversy is sure to rage on, as many psychiatrists stand by the professional precedent. The rule itself has even been expanded recently. But just the existence of the debate is an incredible moment not only in the field of psychiatry but in American politics. It’s not just armchair psychiatrists who are concerned about Trump’s mental health — some of the real ones are even willing to rethink their professional ethics because of it.

The article is here.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

New American Psychiatric Association Policy Prohibits Participation in Euthanasia of Non-Terminally Ill

Mark Moran
Psychiatric News
Published online: January 03, 2017

A psychiatrist should not prescribe or administer any intervention to a non-terminally ill person to cause death, according to a position statement passed by the APA Assembly at its meeting in Washington, D.C., this past November. The statement was approved one month later by the APA Board of Trustees by unanimous consent.

The precise wording of the Position Statement on Medical Euthanasia is as follows: “The American Psychiatric Association, in concert with the American Medical Association’s position on medical euthanasia, holds that a psychiatrist should not prescribe or administer any intervention to a non-terminally ill person for the purpose of causing death.”

(Policies and position statements approved by the Assembly are not official APA policy until they are approved by the Board. For a complete report on Board actions at its meeting this past December, see the next issue of Psychiatric News.)

In an interview with Psychiatric News, Mark S. Komrad M.D., an Assembly representative from the Southern Psychiatric Association who cosponsored the position statement in the Assembly, said it was crafted in response to reports from Belgium, the Netherlands, and elsewhere in Europe that physician involvement in “assisted suicide” had evolved from assisting terminally ill patients to die to actively helping non-terminally ill patients—including mentally ill individuals—die. Annette Hanson, M.D., was co-sponsor of the statement in the Assembly.

The article is here.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Psychiatrist, Also Victimized, Tells of Attack by Defendant

By Russ Buettner
The New York Times
Originally published March 12, 2013

At the murder trial of a man accused of killing an Upper East Side psychologist, several mental health experts are expected to testify about the defendant’s state of mind on the night of the slaying. But one of those experts, Dr. Kent D. Shinbach, did not come to his conclusions from the comfort of his desk.

Dr. Shinbach’s appraisal came to him as he was lying not far from a dead or dying colleague, looking up at a former patient, David Tarloff, who was wielding a bloody meat cleaver.

“He was entirely focused on the task at hand,” Dr. Shinbach, a psychiatrist, testified on Tuesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Dr. Shinbach, 75, shared an office suite with the dead psychologist, Kathryn Faughey. Mr. Tarloff’s lawyers are not contesting that he stabbed and slashed Ms. Faughey, 56, to death on Feb. 12, 2008. They are seeking to prove he was not responsible because of his mental illness.

The entire article is here.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Indictment Of Manhattan Doctor Who Sold Oxycodone Prescriptions To Drug Dealers

Attorney General of New York Press Release
Originally released on February 13, 2013

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced a 55-count indictment against Dr. David Brizer on charges he sold prescriptions for oxycodone and other powerful pain medications to drug dealers from his Rockland County and Midtown Manhattan offices. The indictment also charges Brizer with illegally possessing controlled substances and underreporting his income by at least $500,000 on his New York State personal tax returns in 2010 and 2011.

Brizer, a psychiatrist, was arraigned in Rockland County Court today on two top counts of Criminal Tax Fraud; 34 counts of Criminal Sale of a Prescription for a Controlled Substance; 15 counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance; 2 counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing; along with Scheme to Defraud and Conspiracy charges. All are felony counts. He faces up to seven years behind bars.

“Instead of saving lives, Dr. Brizer used his position to supply drug dealers and feed a prescription drug epidemic that is devastating families across our state. The message is clear – whether you are a doctor or a criminal on the street, my office will prosecute those profiting off the cycle of abuse,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “This office will use every tool at our disposal to bring criminal charges against those who line their own pockets by fueling dangerous addictions and illegally trafficking in prescription narcotics.”

The entire news release is here.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Prof whom Holmes allegedly threatened appears to be his psychiatrist Read more: Prof whom Holmes allegedly threatened appears to be his psychiatrist


By John Ingold and Jeremy P. Meyer
The Denver Post
Originally published September 29, 2012


The University of Colorado professor whom Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes allegedly threatened appears to be Holmes' psychiatrist, according to a court filing made public Friday.

In the filing, prosecutors assert that Holmes and Dr. Lynne Fenton ended their doctor-patient relationship after Holmes made threats to someone, who reported those threats to the CU police. Later in the filing, prosecutors appear to indicate that the person who contacted police was Fenton. In both cases, though, the name of the person contacting police is redacted.

"The relationship was terminated after the defendant made threats directed towards (redacted), who reported the matter to" the police, the filing states. Later on, prosecutors write: "[T]he defendant's professional relationship with (redacted) had been terminated after she reported threats to the CU police."

The entire article is here.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Ohio Doctor Can Be Sued in Inmate’s Suicide: Update

Insurance Journal
Originally published August 29, 2012

A psychiatrist is not immune from being sued for damages by the family of a teenage inmate who killed himself in prison, a federal appeals court has ruled.

(cut)

The lawsuit stems from the March 2007 suicide of 19-year-old Timothy Hughes, who hanged himself from his bunk with a sheet in Butler County Prison after a social worker at the facility denied him access to Tepe to talk about his depression, history of suicide attempts and medication needs, according to the lawsuit.

The entire story is here.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

James Holmes' psychiatrist went to cops with concerns about a patient

By John Ingold and Jeremy P. Meyer
denverpost.com
Originally published August 30, 2012

Here are some excerpts:

On the day she last saw James Holmes, University of Colorado psychiatrist Lynne Fenton went to a campus police officer with concerns about a patient.

Fenton testified Thursday during a hearing in Holmes' murder case that she had no contact with Holmes after June 11. That same day, Fenton said, she contacted Officer Lynn Whitten about a patient. Fenton did not identify the patient, citing the confidentiality issues that were the focus of Thursday's hearing.

"I was trying to gather information for myself," Fenton said.

(cut)

The purpose of the hearing was for prosecutors and defense attorneys to debate whether a notebook Holmes mailed to Fenton the day before the July 20 rampage, which also left 58 injured, is a confidential communication between a doctor and a patient. The defense says it is. Prosecutors believe they should be able to look at it.

The hearing ended Thursday unfinished, and the issue will be taken up again Sept. 20.

The entire story is here.

Thanks to Gary Schoener for this story.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Psychiatrist faces federal charges in HIPAA case

By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot

A psychiatrist faces trial in federal court on charges of illegally disclosing medical information of a Virginia state trooper who had been in his care after being held hostage and raped over three nights.

Prosecutors said this could be the first prosecution nationwide of a physician for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, which went into effect in 2003. The act prohibits disclosure of health records unless the patient gives consent.

Dr. Kaye
Jury selection and testimony began Tuesday in U.S. District Court, where Dr. Richard Alan Kaye, the former medical director of psychiatry at Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk, faces three counts of wrongfully disclosing an individual's health information.
Kaye was working at Obici in 2007 when the female trooper came to him for treatment. Kaye diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from the attack in her home several months earlier.

But the trooper wasn't happy with the way Kaye was treating her and left after 16 days. She filed a complaint with the hospital and, according to federal prosecutors, he lost his job as a result. The Virginian-Pilot does not disclose the identity of rape victims.

The entire story can be read here.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Maryland State Board of Physicians v. Eist

Patient Privacy vs. Disciplining Doctors

By Jonathan E. Montgomery
Originally published June 21, 2011

This January, Maryland's highest court ruled in Board of Physicians v. Eist, that health care practitioners must timely disclose patient medical records to Maryland's Board of Physicians pursuant to a Board subpoena, or face sanctions, even if the patient involved objects to the disclosure.

In this case, Dr. Eist, a psychiatrist, became the subject of a Board investigation after the estranged husband of one of his patients accused Dr. Eist of, among other things, overmedicating the patient. The Board demanded the patient's medical records, but Dr. Eist initially withheld the records when his patient refused to give consent to the disclosure. Dr. Eist believed that he should wait until the Board and his patient settled their privacy dispute.

The entire summary of the case can be found here.

The entire opinion can be read here.

One issue from this case stems from the psychiatrist’s choice of counsel.  Apparently, though a competent attorney, Dr. Eist’s lawyer did not seem to grasp fully how to proceed when dealing with Maryland's Board of Physicians.

One major benefit to being a PPA member is to subscribe to our Legal Consultation Plan.  For $150 per year, a member has access to three hours of time from an attorney who is also a psychologist and understands the workings of the Pennsylvania State Board of Psychology.