A report from Cleveland County, North Carolina.
A Shelby psychiatrist, accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a patient, signed a consent order indefinitely suspending her medical license.
Dr. Kerry L. Balentine was accused of having a romantic relationship with one of her patients after that patient’s wife died in September 2006. Balentine began grief counseling the patient, the consent order said. She had previously treated him for about a year.
According to documents from the North Carolina Medical Board, Balentine began the relationship after accepting an invitation for coffee.
The order said Balentine stopped seeing the patient in her office in October 2006, “implying that he was discharged from her care but not clearly terminating their physician-patient relationship.”
It also stated that Balentine provided prescriptions for medications, including controlled substances to the patient, after the relationship began and did not chart them.
“Dr. Balentine admits that her relationship with (the patient) violated boundaries as well as the ethics of the psychiatric profession and the medical profession as a whole,” the document said.
According to the consent order, dated Dec. 14, Balentine’s license is indefinitely suspended, she agrees to obey all laws, rules and regulations involving medical practice, she is required to notify the board of any change in residence or practice and that she will meet with the board as requested.
If she fails to comply with the order, the board will have grounds to annul, suspend or revoke her medical license.
She had medical privileges at Cleveland Regional Medical Center and Kings Mountain Hospital.
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