NEW: Pawtucket Physician Suspended for Involvement in OxyContin ‘Ring’
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
A Pawtucket physician has been suspended from practice for participating in an illegal OxyContin Ring.
James Patrick O'Hair, MD, a 46-year-old physician with offices at Crest Urgent Care, Pawtucket, was writing prescriptions for name brand narcotics to a group of people in "the Ring," according to the RI Department of Health (HEALTH), who sold the drugs and split the proceeds with O'Hair.
Paid in cash, providing diagnoses
O'Hair, according to documents from HEALTH, was paid in cash. Further, O'Hair would suggest a "chief complaint" and "diagnoses" for members of the Ring and document in their patient charts certain ailments that would justify OxyContin prescriptions.
Buying Coke, condoms, and taking patients to Comfort Inns
In one instance, according to HEALTH, O'Hair asked a patient to accompany him in his car. O'Hair stopped at a CVS store where he "purchased a couple of Cokes and a package of condoms." O'Hair, according to documents, "proceeded to the Comfort Inn where he made the patient take off her clothes."
On another occasion, O'Hair spoke with one of the Ring members who was serving a prison sentence in MA, after which he wrote OxyContin prescriptions for the incarcerated individual which were sold by another Ring member.
O'Hair also ordered stock narcotic medications such as Tussi Cap ER Hydrocodone Bitrate with Clorphen and Dilaudid, among other medications from at least four out-of-state distributors between October 2008 and December 2010. O'Hair offered an explanation to a pharmacy inspector that the controlled substances were dispensed to patients (violation of state law).
Prior to relocating to Pawtucket, O'Hair had a disciplinary history from the New York State Board for Professional Medical Conduct involving writing prescriptions for anabolic steroids without appropriate medical need documentation.
