Bucksport psychiatrist suspended Professional actions, recent drug use cited

A state medical regulatory board Tuesday suspended the license of Bucksport psychiatrist Dr. E. Jeffrey Violette for one year.

Members of the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine reached the decision after more than three hours of testimony on issues related to Violette’s recent drug use, major depressions and professional actions.

“He has demonstrated that he is not trustworthy,” board member Dr. Sheridan R. Oldham said.

Members said Violette had violated an earlier consent agreement with the board by ignoring requests and calls for information, lied about marijuana use to his own psychiatrist who was treating Violette for what Violette described as “depression with psychotic features,” self-prescribed Prozac when he stopped seeing that psychiatrist, and misled others about issues that might have affected patient care.

Violette, who said he did not open mail for long periods of time because of his condition, also ignored inquiries related to an allegation by an anonymous colleague at the Augusta Mental Health Institute that he had been dismissive with peers and had contentious relations with patient advocates. Violette was released after a year of service in 2000.

The board voted unanimously for the suspension with the requirement that the psychiatrist get extensive psychiatric, substance abuse and personality evaluations. After a year, Violette could petition the board for re-evaluation.

Violette’s attorney, Robert Hayes, said his client did not contest that he had violated some rules, including not responding to board correspondence. But he argued that the board should allow the rehabilitation of the physician who would be working in one of the most underserved areas of the state.

In his concluding remarks, Hayes said Violette had been praised in a letter to Medicaid as a valued member of the AMHI provider team.

“It’s important to see what’s not in the record – there’s no evidence of any bad medical care,” Hayes said.

But board members said they thought the patient with severe mental illness who had come for an appointment only to find that the office had been closed had been harmed.

Just before he closed the office in 1999, Violette had been at the Board of Licensure. He agreed to a consent agreement that admitted to improper prescribing and billing practices. He agreed to pay $1,500 and accept random review of his records for two years.

That fine went unpaid until recently.

The psychiatrist also failed to advertise the closing of his office in the newspaper. Assistant Attorney General Ruth McNiff, who presented the case against Violette, said he hadn’t mentioned his plans to close the office when he was before the board. In fact, she said, as far as his patients were concerned the decision to close the office was made “lickety-split.”

As to why he closed the office, Violette said his depression was wearing on him. “I didn’t feel I could be clinically effective anymore.” Violette testified that he has suffered from severe depression beginning in 1976, during his first year of medical school at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

As he was closing his practice in 1999, he got a cold call from a AMHI recruiter. He said he was intrigued by the opportunity of working at AMHI, which he noted has a structured work environment where he wouldn’t have to make decisions on his own.

He said his depression has subsided although he expects to use medication as a preventive measure.

Board members will work on details of the evaluation and treatment requirements before the decision becomes final.