SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) — The former chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board was indicted on charges that he drugged and abducted patients at a psychiatric facility in order to get more money from health care reimbursements, according to an indictment released on Monday.
An Arkansas grand jury indicted Dr. Brian Hyatt in early March on charges that he gave numerous patients strong, mind-altering sedatives in order to keep them at the facility without a medical justification. He is charged with two federal counts of kidnapping and distribution of the controlled substances that he allegedly used to subdue patients.
Seven mental health care workers, administrative employees and nurses who worked for Hyatt also were indicted in early March. Some were charged for allegedly failing to intervene to avoid getting fired, the indictment said. They are accused of neglecting to document patients’ actual conditions in medical records, instead using generic notes in order to obscure the patients’ conditions and conceal the lack of treatment being provided to them…