Thursday, October 04, 2007

Psychiatrist Faces Florida State Disciplinary Action

This report details actions against both a psychiatrist and by a surgeon. This site, being the way it is, will focus of the misconduct by the psychiatrist, even though both patient deaths are troubling. As seen in this report

Two Lakeland doctors accused of medication errors go before the Florida Board of Medicine on Friday in an effort to resolve complaints against them.

A patient died in each situation, but the circumstances vary greatly.

The proposed penalties would be similar - reprimands and additional training and fines, with a drug course for one of them.

The Florida Department of Health and the doctors, without admitting guilt, agreed to the proposed settlements. It's up to the board to decide whether the proposed discipline is acceptable.

The state's accusations involve treatments by Dr. Charles Dack and Dr. Anthony Jean-Jacques.

Dack, a psychiatrist, treated a woman for seven years for depression and back pain after an injury.

Before her death, she was on 1,300 milligrams of morphine a day and on 300 milligrams a day of Elavil, an antidepressant that also can be used to treat chronic pain. Dack also prescribed other antidepressants and didn't require her to seek pain-management treatment, according to the Department of Health complaint.

She was found dead March 13, 2002. The cause of death was listed as "multiple drug intoxication, namely opiates and tricyclic antidepressants," the complaint said.

The state said Dack inappropriately escalated the quantity and dosage of her prescribed narcotics, keeping her at a toxic level of morphine for more than two years; failed to get blood tests to measure the impact of one type of drug; and failed to recognize her dependence on and tolerance for controlled substances.

Dack said he didn't want to comment before the board hearing in Orlando.


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