Psych Observer – Exposing Bad Psychiatry

MANILA, Philippines – An American psychiatrist wanted by federal authorities for allegedly defrauding America’s Medicate and Medicaid programs of more than $2 million has fallen into the Philippine government’s hands.

In a statement issued Thursday, the Bureau of Immigration said Jerome Howard Feldman, 67, was nabbed February 3 while the latter was undergoing medical checkup at the Makati Medical Center.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said Feldman would be deported to the US as soon as the Immigration’s board of commissioners issues the order for the suspect’s summary deportation.

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By Bill Sizemore |The Virginian-Pilot

Another Hampton Roads physician has had his medical license suspended for alleged inappropriate prescription of powerful narcotics to patients with chronic pain.

The Virginia Beach psychiatrist, Dr. Mohammed Soori, also is accused of improper sexual activity with patients. Soori faces a hearing in June before the Virginia Board of Medicine, which suspended his license Jan. 29, citing “a substantial danger to the public health or safety.”

It is the second recent license suspension involving a Virginia Beach doctor. Last month, Dr. Stephen Plotnick, a rheumatologist, surrendered his license for two years after the medical board accused him of contributing to a series of patient deaths by improperly prescribing potent painkillers.

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By Getahn Ward
THE TENNESSEAN

Psychiatric Solutions Inc. has been hit with a lawsuit that accuses the company of negligence in its oversight of employees at a residential psychiatric facility in Florida.

Abuse including beatings by employees at the Manatee Palms Youth Services in Bradenton caused plaintiff Nicholas E. Rossi to suffer severe emotional distress and bodily harm, according to the lawsuit filed last week in Manatee County Circuit Court. Rossi was a resident at the facility from September 2004 to May 2005.

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By Michael Biesecker, Staff Writer (Newsobserver)
State mental health officials were informed earlier this week they could lose federal funding at state psychiatric hospitals in Raleigh and Butner as soon as Feb. 20, potentially costing more than $1.2 million a month in lost revenue.

Meanwhile, federal inspectors were at both facilities Thursday and today reviewing new complaints of patient abuse and neglect.

The loss of Medicaid and Medicare money at Central Regional Hospital, which includes a new $130 million building in Butner and the Dorothea Dix Hospital campus in Raleigh, comes at a critical time for a state Department of Health and Human Services already facing deep budget cuts. It cost about $10 million a month to operate the two hospitals.

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Feb 6 2009  by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A FORMER Huddersfield psychiatrist has been suspended for giving a patient too much of an anti-psychotic drug.

Dr Nicholas Cooling, who was a consultant psychiatrist at the Nuffield Hospital in Birkby, was also reprimanded for carrying out a consultation with the man, known as patient A, in a bar.

He has been removed from the Medical Register for six months by the General Medical Council.
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Violence and Sexual Abuse Found at City-Run Psychiatric Unit
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

The federal government has documented a pattern of sexual and other violent assaults among patients at the psychiatric unit of a city-run Brooklyn hospital where a woman died in June on the floor of the emergency waiting room while staff members ignored her.

After a yearlong investigation, the Department of Justice portrayed the unit at Kings County Hospital Center as a nightmarish place where patients were not treated for suicidal behavior, were routinely subdued with physical restraints and drugs instead of receiving individualized psychiatric treatment, and were frequently abused by other patients.

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By Jeff O’Brien

Wed, Feb 4, 2009 (5:25 p.m.)
A former nursing assistant at Centennial Hills Hospital faces additional charges of sexual assault and lewdness involving patients after a sixth woman came forward with allegations of misconduct.

Steven Farmer, 56, was in Clark County District Court Wednesday for a procedural hearing. His trial, which was set for Monday, was rescheduled for June 22. That trial

is for sexual assault charges involving five women, all alleged victims he encountered

while working at either Centennial Hills or at a previous job at Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital.

A separate trial was set for May 26 on charges involving the sixth alleged victim, who came forward with her allegations in November. He faces one count of sexual assault, five counts of lewdness and two counts of indecent exposure over an incident involving the 51-year-old patient at Centennial Hills Hospital. The woman said Farmer sexually assaulted her and repeatedly lifted up her hospital gown sometime in May 2008.

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Feb 4 2009  Birmingham Post

A mental health patient walked out of a Birmingham psychiatric hospital unchallenged with a door security pass belonging to a member of staff.

But West Midlands Police have revealed that the teenager was only reported missing two days later on Sunday morning.

He had used the swipe card to calmly pass through a number of electronically controlled doors and out of the intensive care unit in Edgbaston on Friday and was finally tracked down in Sparkhill by police on Monday afternoon.

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By RANDALL CHASE
Associated Press Writer

DOVER — State authorities are investigating the suicide of a longtime patient at Delaware’s state-run mental hospital.

Workers at the Delaware Psychiatric Center in New Castle found the patient, a mother of two in her late 40s, unconscious Saturday with a sheet tied around her neck.

The state medical examiner declared the manner of death to be suicide.

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Personnel in Sweden’s psychiatric hospitals have been using dangerous methods to restrain unruly patients.

The practices are considered life threatening by Swedish police, according to Sveriges Radio (SR).

The hold in question was used in psychiatric hospitals in connection with two deaths last year, one in Södertälje and one in Karlstad.

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