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Health agency gives prosecutors 24,000 possible criminal cases

TALLAHASSEE - State Health Secretary John O. Agwunobi said Tuesday that 24,000 disciplinary cases investigated by the department since 1992 are being sent to prosecutors to determine whether investigation of any crimes should be pursued.

The move follows a report released last week by the Department of Health's inspector general that found the department apparently failed to formally refer to prosecutors cases in which doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health practitioners may have committed criminal acts.

Agwunobi said police and prosecutors likely were already aware of many of the cases, because the allegations were reported first to them.

Under state law, when the agency is notified about questionable behavior by a health care professional it licenses, it is supposed to determine whether there is probable cause to proceed with discipline. Then, if there is reason to believe a crime may have been committed, it is supposed to notify prosecutors.

The department couldn't show it did that in many cases, the inspector general found. The law has required reporting of potential criminal violations by health care practitioners since 1992, but the responsibility was in other agencies until 2002, when it was given to the Health Department.

Agwunobi said in an interview that his agency had a "clear obligation" to do it and didn't. He said he was "embarrassed, not a little angry, and very disappointed" about the failure to do so.

Agwunobi said department officials decided to refer to prosecutors all 24,000 cases in which officials had found probable cause of some sort of misconduct since 1992. He said prosecutors are best able to determine whether a crime may have been committed and if so, whether the statute of limitations has run out.

From now on, any case where there's probable misconduct will be referred to prosecutors, Agwunobi said.

The inspector general's investigation was prompted by a member of the public who requested information about psychologists accused of sexual misconduct and asked for documentation about referrals to prosecutors. That documentation couldn't be produced by the Health Department in many cases.

The Tampa Tribune last week identified the person who sought the records as Ken Kramer, a researcher for the Citizens Committee on Human Rights, an organization founded by the Church of Scientology in Clearwater, which opposes many tenets of modern psychiatry and psychology.

Kramer told the Tribune the committee's primary mission is to monitor misconduct by psychotherapists.

[Last modified February 2, 2005, 00:31:09]