Gainesville Sun

Medical board votes to reprimand UF professor with checkered past

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The Florida Board of Medicine has voted unanimously to reprimand a University of Florida psychiatry professor with a history of drug and alcohol addiction for allegedly prescribing a lethal amount of Oxycontin to a patient at an Orlando area hospital.

An administrative complaint by the Department of Health said Dr. Harold E. Smith failed to provide a standard of care in treating Alice Tomlinson, who died Dec. 21, 2010 after being admitted to the Central Florida Behavioral Hospital 10 days earlier.

She was admitted complaining of severe pain and depression and was already taking Klonopin and several other medications, the complaint said…

Smith’s medical license has been revoked in four other states — Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia — for drug and alcohol problems. He also had his certificate to prescribe Schedule II narcotics revoked by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2011 after an investigation found he had falsified his 2002, 2005 and 2008 renewal applications by not disclosing disciplinary proceedings and actions against him…

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Excerpted from: Medical board votes to reprimand UF professor with checkered past
by Jeff Schweers
in The Gainesville Sun, December 9, 2013
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Excerpt reproduced for commentary and educational purposes.