The Journal News (Westchester County, NY)

April 16, 2003 Wednesday

Psychiatrist loses medical license

BYLINE: Melissa Klein, Staff

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4B

LENGTH: 480 words

Mt. Kisco doctor fined $50,000 by state panel for incompetence
Melissa Klein
The Journal News
A state medical oversight committee has revoked the license of a Mount Kisco psychiatrist and fined the doctor $50,000 for gross negligence and incompetence.
The committee of the state Board for Professional Medical Conduct ordered Dr. Jacob Harris to turn in his medical license after an investigation found Harris’ practices were “not even remotely within accepted standards of care.” The decision was dated April 9 and posted this week on the state Health Department’s Web site.
“The committee determined that this doctor’s misconduct was so serious that no other penalty but revocation would be appropriate,” said Kristine Smith, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department. “They noted that his lapses posed a significant threat to his patients and could have resulted in serious injury or even death.”
Pulling a doctor’s license is the stiffest penalty the board can hand out.
Harris, who has an office at 359 Main St., did not return a call seeking comment. His lawyer, William Wood of Scarsdale, also did not return a call.
The doctor, who had been licensed to practice medicine since 1967, was found to have haphazardly prescribed medications to four patients suffering from serious mental health disorders who, at one time or other, threatened to harm themselves or others, according to the committee’s report.
The committee originally looked at the treatment records of eight patients, but found that the pattern of conduct was similar, so only focused its case on four people.
In one case, the report shows, Harris was treating a patient with depression and paranoid schizophrenia who had been thinking about death. The committee found that Harris failed to assess whether the patient had attempted to hurt himself or had a plan to do so; did not evaluate sources of support for the patient; and did not formulate a plan to address the patient’s suicidal thinking. This violated “fundamental tenets of medical practice,” the committee report says.
Harris further violated standards of medicine when he prescribed three medications to the same patient that could have resulted in death or injury if the patient were to take an overdose, the report says.
The committee found that in treating another patient, Harris made notes in his record that the man had obtained a gun license in connection with his employment. But when the patient said he “nearly shot someone who approached him menacingly,” Harris did not assess the patient’s potential danger to others, the committee found.
The committee’s report showed that Harris had been found guilty of a previous, unspecified, case of medical misconduct. That “served to confirm the committee’s choice of penalty,” the report says.