Health department investigations sent to Florida prosecutors

State lawmakers want to find out why many disciplinary cases were not referred to prosecutors, as required by state law.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Feb. 21, 2005.

The Florida Dept. of Health has sent about 16,000 disciplinary investigation cases involving health care professionals to prosecutors to see if criminal charges should be sought.

That means that some physicians previously investigated for misconduct might hear from prosecutors.

The health department forwarded the information after its inspector general found that the agency had failed to refer to prosecutors cases in which physicians, nurses and other health care practitioners might have committed crimes. Florida law requires the department to send such cases to prosecutors.

The inspector's probe was prompted by a Clearwater, Fla., man who questioned if prosecutors had received cases of sexual misconduct against psychotherapists, including psychiatrists and psychologists, health officials said. The inspector found that the department had no record of referring many cases to prosecutors since 1992.

"There is a possibility that a practitioner may not have been prosecuted criminally because of this. We're working to remedy it so it never happens again," said Lindsay Hodges, department spokeswoman.

In a memo, Florida Health Secretary John Agwunobi, MD, MPH, said he was "disappointed" by the January inspector's report and said the situation was "unacceptable."