Marital counseling woes

Often we blog about doctors and nurses in this space.

But here is an interesting case about a social worker who voluntarily surrendered her license to the state.

According to the consent order, Susan Avery, a social worker in Virginia Beach, was providing marriage counseling in March of 2006 when the clients decided to end the martial therapy. One of clients (presumably the wife from the consent order’s language) then scheduled an individual session with Avery.

Avery told the woman’s husband that she had scheduled an appointment and did the same thing for the husband who also scheduled an individual therapy session (informing the wife.)

In addition to breaking this client confidentiality regulation, Avery also kept incomplete records for both clients.

According to the consent order, Avery gave her license up and is entering another line of work.

“if you put your light on again, you won’t be getting up at all.”

Patryce Ryland, a nurse aide in Newport News, has her license yanked by the board following several years of poor care giving.

According to an order filed with the board,  in ’03, Ryland left a patient soiled for 12 hours during a night shift. She was fired from Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital after the incident.

A year later, at Norfolk Health Care, Ryland documented vital signs that she had not actually taken. The patient was subsequently taken to the E.R. for respiratory distress, the order says.

In ’06 during her employment with Sentara, Ryland left a patient wet in bed for 5 hours. Ryland also left another patient, who was tugging on the nurse call light for help getting up, without care for 6 hours. She told the patient, “if you put your light on again, you won’t be getting up at all.”

She was eventually fired from Sentara.

Nurse takes drug patch off patients

We’ve documented many cases of nurses, doctors and other health professionals taking drugs from their job and using them for personal reasons.

This case is a little different in that Mary Brewer, a nurse at Holly Manor Nursing Home in Lynchburg, not only diverted drugs, but she diverted them from the bodies of her patients, according to an order filed with the Virginia Board of Nursing.

Brewer, in Nov. ’05, took fentanyl patches from the bodies of at least three patients for her own use, depriving those patients of their pain medicine. The patches are sticky and applied directly to the skin to help relieve pain.

Brewer, according to the order, also falsified documents that she had given a urine sample, when she had not. She forged the signature of a co-worker as a false witness.

The order says that Brewer’s license has been suspended, but under a list of case decisions, her license is shown as revoked.

State shuts down eye surgeon over improper sedation

State regulators, upset that Petersburg eye surgeon Willis Madden operated on patients under anesthesia without the necessary safeguards, has suspended the doctor’s license. Madden did not have a current cardiopulmonary resuscitation certificate or qualified help to assist with sedation and his drug locker contained expired medicine, according to the case decision filed by the Virginia Board of Medicine.

Doctor suspended over sex with patients, lax prescribing

The Virginia Board of Medicine suspended the license of Richlands internist Muhhamad Javed on Oct. 1 after finding that the 28-year veteran of health care had sexual relations with four patients, which is prohibited by law, according to the case decision.

Some of the encounters occurred during examinations. He also prescribed controlled substances to multiple patients without proper evaluation and monitoring. He is to spend at least a year assessing and improving his conduct and skills.

$24,000 fine for dentist; near death for 3-year-old

A consent order filed with the Virginia Board of Dentistry said dentist Kathryn Biery was put on probation over the misuse of anesthesia, which is used frequently in dental procedures. Biery was the focus on of a story on dental sedation by the Harrionsburg paper. Biery, among other things, failed to complete a comprehensive pre-operative assessment of a 3 year-old girl. Before the operation, the amount of Vistaril given to the girl exceeded the the FDA recommended dosage, the order says.

That overdose might have led to the near death of the 3-year-old named Dakota, one newspaper accused.

Biery, according to the order, also allowed an unlicensed dental assistant to administer nitrous oxide to the same girl and allowed unlicensed personal to handle anesthesia, push medications and starts I.V’s. The order also mentions that parents under pre-op medication were frequently left alone with their children.

Biery told the board that she has changed her procedures. She was fined $24,000, given two years of probation and must enroll in 45 hours of continuing education classes. That is the equivalent to an average college load for three semesters.

Photos from Biery's Web site and Harrionsburg newspaper

Nurse suspended over assault of police officer

Joann D. Royal, a registered nurse in Hampton, saw her license suspended by the Virginia Board of Nursing Sept. 27.

Royal was convited in February 2006 of felony assault and battery of a police officer and sentenced to a year in prison. The details of the case were not available in the consent order or the attached court records.

It is not clear if Royal continued to practice nursing once she got out of jail.