State Suspends Shelton Doctor’s License, Orders Mental Health Therapy

The state Medical Examining Board Tuesday suspended the license of a Shelton doctor for two years and placed his license on probation for four years after accepting a hearing panel’s finding that his paranoid behavior is affecting his ability to safely practice medicine. The first two years of the probation runs at the same time as the suspension, which will be followed by two years of probation, the board’s memorandum of decision states. During the probation, Dr. Nami Bayan must see a therapist. After the suspension ends, Bayan will not be allowed to have a solo practice and must practice medicine in a setting with other physicians during the probation, the order said. In July, the state Department of Public Health had ordered Bayan to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after he had sent emails to the department alleging “corruption and organized crime” in the U.S. medical system, law enforcement and DPH, the memo said.

Elder Abuse Investigations More Than Doubled In Seven Years

State investigations of elder abuse, ranging from neglect to emotional abuse to physical abuse, more than doubled in Connecticut between 2011 and 2017, from 3,529 to 7,196. In 2017 alone, the state Department of Social Services (DSS) received 11,123 reports of elder abuse and decided that 7,196 warranted an investigation. That year, self-neglect—when adults are unable to provide for their own basic care—was the most common type of elder abuse reported to DSS, at 30 percent, followed by neglect by others, financial exploitation, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and abandonment. “It’s all trending up,” Dorian Long, DSS director of social work services, said. Some of the recent cases investigated by DSS Protective Services for the Elderly are chilling.

Med Board Fines, Reprimands Norwich And Shelton Doctors

A Norwich doctor was disciplined by the state Medical Examining Board for failing to appropriately manage the care of patients with pain, diabetes and a seizure disorder. It’s the third time that Dr. Helar Campos, who also has an office in New London, has been disciplined by the board. Campos was reprimanded and fined $8,000 and had his medical license placed on probation for six months under a consent order he agreed to. During the probation, he must hire a physician to monitor a portion of his patients’ records. In 2012, Campos was fined $7,000 for the illegal delegation of nursing care to unlicensed staff, state Department of Public Health records show.

State Disciplines 9 Nurses; Reprimands LPN Who Failed To Seek Timely Care For Her Daughter

A licensed practical nurse from Rocky Hill who was sentenced to nine months in prison in connection with her toddler being badly burned in a bathtub has had her license reprimanded by the state Board of Examiners for Nursing. On Wednesday, Shamique Martin was one of 9 nurses disciplined by the board. It placed her license on probation for four months and ordered her to take courses in ethics and being a mandated reporter of child abuse. In February, 2017, Rocky Hill  police arrested her in connection with her daughter’s burns. In September 2017, Martin pleaded guilty to one count of risk of injury to a minor and one count of making a false statement.

DPH Fines Nursing Homes For Lapses In Care; Two Cases Involved Deaths

Six nursing homes have been cited by the state Department of Public Health (DPH) for lapses in care, including two cases in which residents died. DPH fined Hancock Hall in Danbury $10,000 in August in connection with three incidents, including the case of a resident who died in June from complications due to a head injury caused by a fall out of a lift, the state citation said. Four days before the death, the resident was kicking and punching two nurse’s aides who were moving the person in the lift, the citation said. A clip on the lift pad came undone and the resident slipped out of the sling and onto the floor and sustained a head injury. A review found that the aides should have stopped the lift and notified a nurse when the person became combative.

State Suspends Two Nurses’ Licenses For Alcohol Abuse

The state Board of Examiners for Nursing on today suspended the licenses of two registered nurses, saying their abuse of alcohol poses a danger to the public. The first nurse, Laura Kisatsky of Cornwall, abused alcohol in December, in violation of a consent order she agreed to in 2014. In July, state Department of Public Health (DPH) officials had told the board that Kisatsky’s use of morphine endangered the public. Those charges are pending. In 2005, Kisatsky had voluntarily surrendered her license after admitting stealing controlled substances while working as a nurse at Yale New Haven Hospital, records show.

Med Board Fines Greenwich Doctor For Prescribing High Doses Of Opioids

The state Medical Examining Board fined a Greenwich doctor $3,000 on Tuesday for failing to justify prescribing high doses of opioids for patients in 2015 and 2016. The board also reprimanded the license of Dr. Francis X. Walsh, placed his license on probation for six months and ordered him to take courses in medical documentation and controlled substance prescribing, a consent order he agreed to said. In prescribing the drugs in his office practice, Walsh failed to properly document that he had examined the patients and failed to justify “potentially dangerous dosing and combinations of medications,” the order said. During the probation, Walsh must hire a doctor to review his office practice. Walsh has surrendered his state registration to prescribe controlled substances in that practice, state records show.

State Fines APRN For Inappropriately Prescribing Drugs; Disciplines Three Others

A nurse at Avon Old Farms School was fined $5,000 today by the state Board of Examiners for Nursing for inappropriately prescribing controlled substances to herself, family members and friends 42 times. Lenore Leone of Avon, an advanced practice registered nurse, who works at the private school under her married name, Lenore Severni, prescribed the drugs for herself and seven friends and relatives from 2014 to 2017, a consent order she agreed to said. The board also reprimanded her license. From 1992 to 2017, Leone also practiced and prescribed controlled substances without having a collaboration agreement with a doctor, as state law requires, the order said. Under the order, Leone must enter into an agreement with a doctor.

Med Board Recommends Reinstating License Of Doctor Who Served Prison Term

The state Medical Examining Board today recommended reinstating the medical license of a former Yale School of Medicine department head who served nine months in prison for lying about his travel expenses while at Johns Hopkins University. In 2017, Dr. Jean-Francois Geschwind of Westport pleaded guilty to four counts of mail fraud arising from his scheme to unlawfully obtain travel expenses from Johns Hopkins, where he was a radiologist, according to the U.S. attorney in Maryland. Geschwind fraudulently received reimbursement for trips to the United Kingdom, France and Japan when some of the expenses were for family vacations and meals, the U.S. attorney said. He was ordered to pay fine of $75,000 and an assessment of  $400 and restitution of $583,484, Connecticut and Maryland records show. A liver cancer researcher, Geschwind wrote to the Connecticut board that in 2015, he was recruited by Yale to become its new chair of the radiology department.

Former LPNs Face Obstacles For Relicensing

State nursing regulators have ordered two former licensed practical nurses to take a refresher course before they can get their licenses back following disciplinary action. But there’s a problem: the only LPN refresher course approved by the state Department of Public Health won’t accept anyone with an active disciplinary order. One of the nurses, Heather Delaney of Oxford, says she has beaten the addiction to the anti-anxiety drug Klonopin that caused her to alter a prescription in 2010 and can safely return to nursing. She agreed to a consent order with the state Board of Examiners for Nursing in 2016, only to be turned down by the approved program, at South Dakota State University, because of the order. Delaney was one of two nurses featured in a January 2018 C-HIT article on nurses and addiction.