Fines & Sanctions

State Disciplines LPN For Mistreatment Of York Inmate, Disciplines 7 Others

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The state Board of Examiners for Nursing this week disciplined eight nurses, including reprimanding a York Correctional Institution nurse for failing to properly care for an inmate who suffered a serious brain injury in the prison medical unit in 2014. Licensed practical nurse Shanequa Moore of New Haven also had her license placed on probation for two years after the board found that Moore failed to practice nursing with empathy, compassion and care in the inmate’s case, a consent order she agreed to said. While not admitting any wrongdoing, Moore chose not to contest the allegations. She has completed courses in medical documentation, ethics, professional accountability, mindfulness and empathy, the order said. Moore is the second nurse disciplined by the board in connection with the injury at the Niantic prison.

Fines & Sanctions

State Places Yale Doctor On Probation For Alcohol Abuse

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The state Medical Examining Board Tuesday placed a Yale Cancer Center doctor’s license on probation for five years, saying his excessive abuse of alcohol affects his ability to practice as a physician. The board accepted a consent order that said Dr. Harris E. Foster Jr. abused alcohol to excess at various times between 2012 and May of this year. Last week, the cancer center’s website listed Foster as a professor of urology at the Yale School of Medicine and as the director of female urology and neuro-urology at the center in New Haven. After a reporter inquired about his status, the cancer center’s website on Tuesday only listed him as a urology professor. Mark D’Antonio, a spokesman for Yale New Haven Hospital, said Tuesday that Foster is still affiliated with the cancer center, but he cannot comment further because Yale does not comment on personnel matters.

Fines & Sanctions

State Disciplines Three Nurses, Two For Substance Abuse Violations

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The state Board of Examiners for Nursing this week disciplined three nurses, including suspending the license of a Stamford Hospital nurse accused of stealing Dilaudid meant for 21 patients. The registered nurse, Kerrisha Stacy-Ann Hurd of Elmont, New York, took the painkillers meant for the patients but did not administer the doses to them between January and March while she worked in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit of the hospital, state records show. In March, she fainted while on the job, and a syringe with a bloody needle was found in her uniform pocket, records show. Then on April 26, she admitted that she gave herself a shot of Dilaudid while working, records show. She was taken to the emergency room and tested positive for opiates, records show.

Fines & Sanctions

State Suspends Licenses Of 2 Nurses; Disciplines A Third

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The state Board of Examiners for Nursing disciplined three nurses on Wednesday, including suspending the license of an East Hartford nurse who tested positive for alcohol just two months after being placed on probation for alcohol abuse. The board suspended the license of the licensed practical nurse, Nicole Miller, because her positive test in June violated her four-year probation, state records show. State Department of Public Health officials said her continued practice as a nurse presents a danger to the public. In April, the board imposed the four-year probation on Miller and required her to undergo random drug and alcohol testing because, state records show, she had abused alcohol and/or opiates to excess in 2016 and 2017. The board also suspended the registered nurse license of Kimberly Eldridge of Coventry for testing positive for alcohol in April, in violation of an agreement she had with an alternative program for health professionals called the Health Assistance InterVention Education program, or HAVEN.

Fines & Sanctions

State Medical Board Disciplines 3 Doctors

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The state Medical Examining Board disciplined three doctors on Tuesday, including fining a Norwich doctor $7,500 for failing to keep his prescription pad secure. The board also reprimanded the doctor, John Paggioli, who specializes in pain management. In addition to not providing adequate security of his prescription pad, Paggioli had pre-signed a blank prescription for a patient and held controlled substances in his office for various patients, a consent order he agreed to said. Though he denied any wrongdoing, Paggioli chose not to contest the allegations, the order said. “He absolutely learned from this,” the doctor’s lawyer, Hilary Fisher Nelson of Hartford, told the board.

Fines & Sanctions

Nursing Board Reprimands APRN, Disciplines Two Nurses

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A psychiatric nurse from Durham who lost a $4.2 million malpractice decision in 2016 in connection with her care of a patient who committed suicide was reprimanded Wednesday by the state Board of Examiners for Nursing. The board also placed the advanced practice registered nurse license of Catherine Florio, who treated the patient in 2009 at Harbor Health Services in Branford, on probation for six months, during which she must complete courses on the management of patients with depression or anxiety or who are considering suicide, according to a consent order Florio agreed to with the board. Florio must also complete a course on managing patients who are withdrawing from benzodiazepines, a class of drugs used to treat anxiety. In 2016, a New Haven Superior Court jury found Florio 35 percent responsible for the death of Alan Jarecki, a 55-year-old house painter from Madison who was admitted to Yale New Haven Hospital because he was considering suicide, the Connecticut Law Tribune reported. The jury found the hospital 65 percent liable for the death, but the hospital had previously settled the lawsuit with Jarecki’s family, the Law Tribune reported.

Nursing Board Suspends Two Licenses, Revokes Two Others

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The state Board of Examiners for Nursing has suspended the licenses of two nurses and revoked the licenses of two others. Meeting July 18 in Hartford, the board revoked the licensed practical nurse license of Frances Pisaturo of East Haven. It had suspended her license in November, saying that while working at PSA Healthcare in Stratford this year, she used marijuana to excess and posed a danger to the public, state records show. The charges were deemed admitted at a hearing in April because Pisaturo did not attend it, records show. The board also revoked the LPN license of Shannon Eustace of Wolcott, who state records show was accused of using alcohol, cocaine and Ativan to excess in 2017 and having an emotional disorder or mental illness that affects her ability to practice safely.

Fines & Sanctions

Nursing Board Disciplines Five Nurses

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The Board of Examiners for Nursing on Wednesday disciplined five nurses while dropping the charges against an Ansonia nurse because he is now serving 60 years in prison for an unrelated felony murder. The charges were dropped against Jermaine V. Richards, a former licensed practical nurse from Ansonia, because he was convicted in March of the felony murder of his ex-girlfriend, an Eastern Connecticut State University student, in 2013. Since Richards’ nursing license lapsed in 2016 and is now serving a long sentence for murdering Alyssiah Wiley, 20, of West Haven, the prosecution of administrative charges against him is unnecessary, an attorney for the state Department of Public Health told the board. In charges unrelated to the murder, Richards had been accused of being involved in a fight with a visitor in the home of one of his patients. In June 2017, the board revoked his nursing license because of the fight and after concluding that he slept while on duty at a patient’s home, but a month later, the board vacated the revocation because Richards had asked for a continuance.

Nursing Board Reprimands Three APRNs For Inappropriately Prescribing Drugs

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The state Board of Examiners for Nursing on Wednesday disciplined five nurses, including three advanced practice registered nurses for inappropriately prescribing drugs to family members. The board reprimanded the license of Joan Landino, an APRN from Wallingford, because in 2015, she inappropriately prescribed a controlled substance to a family member without documenting a medical evaluation of the person, a consent order she agreed to said. In 2016, she also failed to secure her prescription pad and inappropriately prescribed stimulants and benzodiazepines, a category of drugs that includes Valium, to patients, the order said. She also prescribed controlled substances to patients without documenting a justification for the prescriptions, the order states. Landino’s license will be on probation until she completes courses in prescribing practices and documentation standards, and she is restricted from prescribing any medication for herself, family members or friends except in an emergency, the order states.

Med Board Disciplines Three Medical Practitioners

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The state Medical Examining Board on Tuesday disciplined three medical practitioners, including fining a New London urologist $3,500 for inappropriate treatment of a patient’s bladder tumor. The urologist, Dr. Anthony Quinn, was also reprimanded for failing to promptly respond to the same patient’s lab result, a consent order he agreed to said. The board also placed his medical license on probation for one year. During that year, Quinn must hire a specialist to review his records for each of his patients with diagnoses of bladder tumors or bladder cancer, the order said. The state Department of Public Health’s (DPH) investigation began in 2012 when the patient complained that she had to undergo the complete removal of her bladder by another surgeon after Quinn cared for her, state records show.