Lincoln Journal Star (Nebraska)

January 6, 1998 Tuesday
City Edition

Psychiatrists face possible sanctions from state

BYLINE: DAVID SWARTZLANDER Lincoln Journal Star

SECTION: B; Pg. 3

LENGTH: 363 words

One Lincoln psychiatrist could be suspended for refusing to submit to a mental examination and another faces a disciplinary hearing for allegedly having sex with a patient. A hearing on the license suspension of Dr. Subramanyam Rajagopal is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday at the Nebraska State Office Building, 301 Centennial Mall South. Accord- ing to a notice of hearing filed against the doctor by the state attor- ney general’s office, Rajagopal de- clined to be examined by a three- member committee of doctors ap- pointed by the state’s Board of Ex- aminers in Medicine and Surgery. In the other case, Dr. James H. Sorrell faces potential disciplinary action for allegedly having sex with a female patient. No hearing date has been set in that case. Settlement negotiations have begun in Sorrell’s case between him and the state at- torney general, according to the pe- tition for disciplinary action filed by the state attorney general’s office. In Rajagopal’s case, Dr. Charles Andrews, chief medical officer of the state’s Health and Human Serv- ices Department, decided in July that there was reasonable cause to question Rajagopal’s mental health. In September, the Board of Ex- aminers appointed a committee of three doctors to examine Rajagopal and make a report. According to the hearing notice filed last month, Ra- jagopal was notified last fall that the committee planned to examine him, but he declined to submit to the exam.
Rajagopal then was contacted by an investigator for Health and Hu- man Services in October, the notice states. When he was told his license could be suspended, Rajagopal re- portedly said: “I’m prepared to burn my license and get on with my life. I don’t care. All the other psychia- trists are just nuts.” Nebraska law states that failure of a licensee to submit to a physical or mental exam requested by the medical board is just cause for li- cense suspension. In Sorrell’s case, he began treating a female patient in 1992, providing psycotherapy and psychiatric as- sessments and prescribed medica- tions for her in June 1996. Beginning in October 1994, Sorrell allegedly en- gaged in a sexual relationship with the patient.