By Nichole Aksamit, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.
Oct. 23–According to recently released documents, officials with the Nebraska Health and Human Services System issued the following allegations and disciplinary actions in June, July and August against medical professionals licensed in Nebraska: –Fined Omaha dentist Dr. Ali Akkoseoglu $10,000, suspended him for 45 days and ordered him to take courses in dental record-keeping and diagnosis, dental X-ray use and interpretation and professional ethics. Inspections and chart reviews allowed under a previous limitation on Akkoseoglu’s license revealed substandard dental diagnosing and record-keeping in his practice and fraudulent insurance claims for two patients. –Fined Kearney pharmacist Richard Asher $2,500 and placed his license on probation for three years. Asher did not contest allegations that he failed to maintain accurate records of controlled substances ordered and dispensed at his pharmacy. –Suspended Omaha nurse Romunda Baker’s license for 30 days and ordered her to take a professional accountability course. Baker left a nursing shift in March without her supervisor’s permission and failed to report her subsequent termination as required. –Suspended Omaha nurse Deborah Brittenham for 30 days. She falsified patient records to suggest she had taken patients’ temperatures and was subsequently fired from the correctional facility where she worked. –Fined nurse Dale Brock of Missouri Valley, Iowa, $1,000 for working during a one-year period in which his nursing license had lapsed. –Accepted the voluntarily surrendered license of Omaha nurse Dezeree Brown. Brown tested positive for amphetamine use in March, was diagnosed with methamphetamine and alcohol dependence and marijuana abuse in April and admitted working while under the influence of methamphetamine. –Revoked the license of Omaha nurse Constance Buresh. Buresh was convicted of misdemeanor driving under the influence, driving under suspension and disturbing the peace in 2004 and 2005. She admitted to chronic use of methamphetamine and alcohol between 2001 and 2005 and occasional use of cocaine in 2004 and 2005 and said she entered a treatment program. She failed to provide treatment records to licensing officials. –Suspended Dr. Judith Butler of Blytheville, Ark., for 30 days for failure to report controlled-substance prescriptions for her patients in Nebraska and to promptly provide patient records to investigators, conditions of her probationary license. Butler said she thought she’d prescribed the drugs under her Arkansas license and noted that she did eventually provide the requested records. –Suspended North Platte nurse Linda Carsten for 30 days. Carsten did not contest allegations that she falsified patient records in February by filling in vital signs and other information before she had seen the patients. She was subsequently fired. –Fined Omaha nurse Jayna Conley $500 and extended her two-year probation by a year. Conley tested positive for alcohol in May and failed to submit proof of attendance at support group meetings, both violations of the terms of her probationary license. –Placed Omaha nurse Tiffani Cullum on five years probation. Cullum tested positive for marijuana on a pre-employment drug-screening in April and was diagnosed as cannabis dependent in May. –Suspended Lincoln nurse Christine Daily for 30 days. Daily falsified an expired CPR certificate to suggest that her certification was current. –Accepted the voluntarily surrendered license of Dr. Anthony Dake of Kearney. Dake did not contest allegations that he repeatedly appeared in the emergency department while not on duty to pray “because the Lord told him he needed to be there”; refused to leave when asked and disrupted the hospital’s orderly operation; stood in the middle of a street praising God; was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia; underwent some mental health treatment but refused most prescribed medications for his condition and fled a psychiatric evaluation in March. –Censured Omaha nurse Janice Eckholt for practicing outside the scope of her nursing license when she administered IV medications to a patient in February. –Placed Lincoln nurse John Fahrnbruch on five years probation. Fahrnbruch was convicted of misdemeanor driving under the influence in 1997 and in April and was diagnosed as alcohol dependent in February. He completed treatment in May and entered an aftercare treatment program. –Suspended Lincoln chiropractor Paul Firnhaber 30 days and placed his license on two years probation. Firnhaber failed to maintain an accurate patient record, failed to consult a medical doctor for a patient he believed had cancer and practiced beyond the scope of a chiropractor. –Placed Curtis nurse Tina Foerster on three years probation. Foerster was convicted of misdemeanor possession of marijuana in August 2005 and diagnosed with alcohol and marijuana abuse in January. –Placed Lincoln nurse Bridget Fox on two years probation. Fox was fired for numerous medication errors. She failed to report her firing as required. –Suspended Ralston nurse Karmen Goerks for 120 days and ordered her to take an ethics course if she wants to be reinstated. Goerks discontinued physician-ordered treatments of a patient’s pressure sores, falsified the patient’s record and failed to report her subsequent termination as required. –Suspended Elkhorn nurse Carolyn Griger for 30 days and ordered her to write and present a paper on the licensed practical nurse’s role in medication administration and IV therapy. Griger started an IV for a patient and used leftover flu vaccine from a vaccination clinic on her children and a fellow employee’s children — tasks outside her scope of practice. –Accepted the voluntarily surrendered license of Beatrice psychologist Edward Gross. He was convicted of driving under the influence and diagnosed with alcohol dependency in 2000 and 2004. He failed to submit to a follow-up evaluation in March. –Suspended Chadron pharmacist Arthur Halfhide for 90 days and placed his license on three years probation for repeatedly dispensing medications without a physician’s prescription. –Suspended Lincoln nurse Rochelle Helmick for one month after she took and ingested four pills from the clinic where she worked. –Fined pharmacist Chad Herelyn of Kansas City, Mo., $500. Herelyn’s Missouri pharmacy license was placed on two years probation in July 2005 because he failed to ensure pharmacy technicians were properly registered in Missouri. He failed to report that discipline to Nebraska licensing officials as required. –Suspended the license of Lincoln nurse Kenneth Hirschfeld for one year. Hirschfeld diverted pain medication from his employer for personal use for two and a half years. He was diagnosed as opioid dependent and began outpatient treatment in February. –Placed Gering pharmacist Randall Holloway on five years probation. Holloway did not contest allegations that he overfilled codeine prescriptions for his wife and her two children and refilled them too often. –Fined Dr. Judson Jones of Omaha $2,500 and ordered him to complete a pain management course. Jones prescribed hydrocodone to his brother-in-law, without establishing a doctor-patient relationship or creating a patient record for him. –Fined Omaha physician assistant David Kershner $5,000. Kershner did not contest allegations that he claimed to have received a degree in veterinary medicine from Purdue University but could produce no documentary proof of that degree. –Placed Plattsmouth nurse Heather Kilpatrick on probation for one year. Kilpatrick failed to maintain accurate patient medication records. –Placed Lincoln nurse Amy Krannawitter on five years probation. She was convicted of three misdemeanors for driving under the influence of alcohol in 2002, 2005 and 2006. –Accepted the voluntarily surrendered license of Omaha nurse Gayleen Kuehn. Kuehn has physical problems requiring multiple medications which affect her concentration and nursing ability when she takes them. –Accepted the voluntarily surrendered license of Omaha nurse Debra Kurmel. Kurme
l refused an employer drug test in November, failed to attend support group meetings in December and January and consumed alcohol in January — violations of her probation on a previous discipline for alcohol abuse. –Accepted the voluntarily surrendered license of Holdredge nurse Stephen Larison. Larison became addicted to pain medications both prescribed and diverted from patient supplies. After hospitalization in March, he was diagnosed with alcohol and marijuana abuse and opioid dependency. He enrolled in an outpatient treatment program. –Revoked the license of Lincoln nurse Patricia Marsh, who twice tested positive for marijuana use. –Revoked the probationary license of Scottsbluff nurse Kayla McBride, for methamphetamine use and other violations of her probation conditions. –Revoked South Sioux City nurse Victor McDonald’s license. McDonald did not contest allegations that he possessed methamphetamine, was charged with Class IV felony methamphetamine possessions in January 2006 and had a previous misdemeanor conviction for attempted possession of marijuana. –Suspended Lincoln nurse Bryce Miller for seven months, placed his nursing license on probation for five years and suspended his nurse anesthetist license for one year. At home and on the job in 2005, Miller took some medications documented as being given to patients or thrown away in what he described as an attempt to wean himself from a Vicodin addiction he’d developed a year earlier. Miller completed outpatient treatment in late 2005. –Accepted the voluntarily surrendered license of Rushville nurse Judy Moeller. Moeller was fired in January for unsatisfactory job performance. She had been disciplined in 2004 for making multiple medication errors. –Placed Omaha nurse Denie Nesvan on probation for one year and fined her $500. Nesvan did not contest allegations that she failed to notify a physician and/or document notifying a physician about a care center resident’s worsening condition in 2003 and that she failed to use proper sterile techniques in changing that resident’s catheter. The resident was subsequently hospitalized. –Ordered Omaha pharmacist Greg O’Grady to complete a 12-hour error prevention class. O’Grady failed to check the dosage on a prescription refill against the original prescription. –Fined Dr. Sharidan Parr $1,000 and amended her probationary conditions to specify that she avoid consumption of alcohol or alcohol-containing products such as mouthwash and over-the-counter-medications unless prescribed by a physician. The Omaha doctor refused random body-fluid screening tests between December and May, didn’t submit proof of attendance at support group meetings between January and June and tested positive for high levels of an ingredient in Nyquil in May — all violations of her probationary license. –Accepted the voluntarily surrendered license of Grand Island nurse Carissa Rickard. She did not contest allegations that she laid down after developing a migraine while caring for two patients who required 24-hour care; that video surveillance showed she spanked, shook and dropped a brain-deformed 2-year-old; or that she was charged with class 3 felony child abuse. –Censured and fined Grand Island nurse Shanon Roudebush $2,500. Between December 2004 and April 2005, she made nine documented medication errors.
—–
Copyright (c) 2006, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Comments