Psychiatrist with drug conviction loses Delaware medical license

From The News Journal

Adam Scioli, a psychiatric resident hired by the Delaware Psychiatric Center in early July who had a previous felony drug conviction in Pennsylvania and a suspended Pennsylvania medical license, lost his Delaware medical license last week.

Scioli had been a resident at Temple University until Nov. 2, 2004, when he was arrested for selling a potential date-rape drug to an undercover police officer.

Scioli was sentenced to two months in jail and then placed on probation until 2010, according to court records. But on July 1, Scioli began a new residency program in psychiatry at DPC.

On Thursday, at a public hearing of a legislative committee investigating DPC, Dr. Gerard Gallucci, medical director for the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, told lawmakers that he had been responsible for hiring Scioli.

After a story about Scioli was published, James Collins, director of the state Division of Professional Regulation, said Scioli’s medical license was “erroneously issued” and may be annulled.

This week the status of Scioli’s Delaware medical license changed from “active” to “null and void.”

“The Division’s proposed course of action to annul the license issued to Dr. Adam Scioli became moot based upon information that Dr. Scioli is no longer employed at the facility for which the license was issued,” Collins told The News Journal in an e-mail.

Scioli’s Delaware medical license, Collins said, was a training license, and therefore was “institution-specific.”

The News Journal has not been able to contact Scioli, despite messages left with his friends and attorney.

Last month, Sen. Robert I. Marshall, D-Wilmington West, sent a letter to the president and members of the Board of Medical Practice and the Division of Professional Regulation, who oversee how physicians and other medical professionals are licensed in the state.

Marshall, a longtime patients’ rights advocate, included draft legislation that could slightly alter the requirements of applicants for physician licenses.

Marshall’s bill would change the wording of the state code governing background checks for physician license applicants, requiring the board to actually possess the applicant’s criminal background checks before issuing a license.

The proposed legislation, Marshall said, would not alter or remove the discretionary power of the board.

“I’m looking forward to early action in January, to see the bill move forward in the Senate, hopefully move through the House, and onto the governor’s desk,” Marshall said last month.