Hitesh D. Patel was caught in an undercover investigation.
The license of Dr. Hitesh D. Patel, a pediatrician from Anaheim, California, has been put on probation for five years for writing a prescription without seeing a patient, among other indiscretions, according to an investigation.
The Medical Board of California recently placed the licenses of two physicians on probation, including Patel—one for signing a prescription for a patient he never examined and the other for being convicted of Medi-Cal fraud, reported OC Weekly. A third doctor pleaded guilty to faking his own death to avoid an insurance fraud case.
After the medical board received a complaint, an undercover officer posed as a patient at Anaheim Market Clinic, 1311 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, on March 26, 2013. After completing a medical questionnaire, she was taken into an examination room, where she detailed for a medical assistant her symptoms (ear infection and sore throat) and the level of her throbbing pain and humming noise in her ear (six on a 10-point scale).
After entering that information, the “patient’s†vitals and height and weight into a computer in the exam room, the assistant left and a “Dr. Luis†entered, reported OC Weekly. (He turned out to be an unlicensed fellow named Horacio Fernandez Sifuentes, according to the medical board.
The phony doctor examined the woman and then wrote a prescription for 21, 500 mg. capsules of Cephalexin, an antibiotic that fights infections. But it was Patel who signed the script without ever having seen the patient—a violation of state law.
The undercover returned May 30, 2013, but “Dr. Luis†saw no signs of the ear infection the “patient†was complaining about, so he called in Patel to examine the woman. Patel diagnosed her with temporomandibular joint disorder (or TMJ, often associated with grinding of the teeth while sleeping) and prescribed her an antibiotic and Motrin.
However, medical records obtained by the state board show that Patel exaggerated the extent of the examination and that he diagnosed her with middle-ear inflammation, not TMJ.
The board faulted Patel for failing to examine the patient during the first visit, poor and inaccurate record keeping and violating the Medical Practice Act. When meting out punishment, board members considered that Patel’s license was placed on five years probation on Sept. 24, 1998, for verbally sexually harassing a minor female outpatient and adult female secretary at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. The board also considered his June 20, 1990, discipline from the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners for deliberately altering his Educational Commission for Foreign medical Graduates certification.
Effective last Thursday, Patel’s license was placed on five years’ probation, during which he must complete ethics, prescribing and record-keeping courses, have his practice monitored by a board designee, inform every hospital and clinic where he has privileges of his probationary status, stay away from physician assistants, obey all laws, give the board quarterly updates on his progress and avoid house calls, reported OC Weekly.