Imposter Physician Assistant diagnosed 137 children & wrote 400 prescriptions

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

SkipJunior

I'm Your Butler
Account on Hold
7+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/ma...ysican-assistant-impostor-20150227-story.html

This is a very scary and disheartening news article. This imposter provided a forged Physician Assistant certificate and fake DEA license number to her pediatrician employer.

Before she worked as a fake PA, she worked as a surgical assistant but she was fired when her surgeon employer found she was forging checks in the surgeon's name.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
This reminds me of Frank Abnaglie Jr. He successfully posed as a physician, but allegedly gave it up when a child almost died because of him. This is chronicled in the Leonardo DiCaprio film Catch Me If You Can.
"Dr. Harris..."
e4fdb6ff6815cd5d056be05cd2e2e122bbea5273d383344b94e5c06966c69dc6.jpg
 
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/ma...ysican-assistant-impostor-20150227-story.html

This is a very scary and disheartening news article. This imposter provided a forged Physician Assistant certificate and fake DEA license number to her pediatrician employer.

Before she worked as a fake PA, she worked as a surgical assistant but she was fired when her surgeon employer found she was forging checks in the surgeon's name.
Scary. Now I understand why Universities and other Health Systems required credentialing up the ying/yang. They independently verify your University records and graduation, residency completion, DEA and state licenses, etc. I guess private practice folks cut corners and look what happens, I can't imagine the liability when this happens.

All providers (NP/MD/PA, etc) currently get to do massive amounts of paperwork, and wait months to get credentialed at Healthy Systems and larger private practices (which are dwindling).
 
Maybe it was a pre med student that never was accepted to medical school and had a real passion for Medicine so he self taught himself. Looking at the system we have an America in spending years beating around the bush in research, volunteering, shadowing, spending DAYS in the library, nights neglecting sleep from working graveyard and still getting rejected, I can definitely see this happening.
 
Scary. Now I understand why Universities and other Health Systems required credentialing up the ying/yang. They independently verify your University records and graduation, residency completion, DEA and state licenses, etc. I guess private practice folks cut corners and look what happens, I can't imagine the liability when this happens.

All providers (NP/MD/PA, etc) currently get to do massive amounts of paperwork, and wait months to get credentialed at Healthy Systems and larger private practices (which are dwindling).

This! Forging a certificate is one thing. However, you need a license. How can one get away with that if an employer checks your license validity with the state in question. Additionally, shouldn't a PA have an NPI #? A lot of cut corners.