Medical Board Alleges Misconduct By 3 Doctors
May 29–Three Charlotte doctors are facing discipline by the N.C. Medical Board, which has accused them of unprofessional conduct.
Drs. Carl Trent Augustus, formerly with the Holistic Health Clinic on Eastway Drive, and Peter Thomas Fortkort of Piedmont Emergency Medicine have been scheduled for hearings before the board on Aug. 17.
A hearing has not yet been scheduled for Dr. Steven Jae Cynn, who was convicted earlier this year in Mecklenburg County Superior Court on 17 felony drug charges.
None of the doctors could be reached for comment Thursday.
The board alleges that Augustus, 43, became involved in a sexual relationship with a female patient in April 2004.
The board said he also had a “significant, social relationship” with another female patient in 2002 and 2003. The board said he once called her and said “he had an attraction to her and he needed to act out his impure thoughts.”
Augustus has been licensed to practice medicine in North Carolina since 1996.
The board alleges that Fortkort, 43, engaged in a romantic relationship with a female patient and wrote “excessive amounts of prescriptions” for controlled substances for that patient and her husband, who was not his patient.
The board said Fortkort denied writing the majority of the prescriptions, but admitted that many of the prescriptions appeared to be his.
Fortkort joined Piedmont Emergency Medicine about two years ago. He had previously been chief of staff at Lincoln Medical Center and a member of the board of Lincoln Health Systems, according to a spokesman for Carolinas Medical Center, which manages the hospital. Doctors with Piedmont Emergency Medicine, on Latrobe Drive in Charlotte, work at CMC-Pineville, CMC-Mercy and CMC-University, as well as other area hospitals.
Fortkort was licensed by the medical board in 1995.
Cynn, 68, a family practitioner, surrendered his medical license in June 2004 after he was arrested on charges of selling hydrocodone, a narcotic painkiller similar to morphine, to an undercover vice officer. The allegations of unprofessional conduct come as a result of his conviction on those charges. He received a suspended sentence and was placed on probation for 24 months and ordered to do community service.
Cynn had been licensed to practice in North Carolina since 1974.
The board said the doctors’ actions constitute unprofessional conduct, which is grounds for suspension, limitation or revocation of a doctor’s license. The doctors can choose to have public hearings before the board or agree to consent orders, which would include conditions such as counseling and supervision and would avoid a hearing.
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