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Physician assistant deemed risk to public health and safety loses medical license

Posted at 6:01 PM, Oct 09, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-11 14:46:35-04

A Physician assistant whose questionable conduct was first exposed by Contact 13 has now lost her license to practice medicine.  

The Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners calls physician assistant Angela Lorenzo deceptive, dishonest, and possibly dangerous.

The board's Investigative Committee says Lorenzo poses the risk of imminent harm to the health, safety, and welfare of the public. So as a result, they've summarily suspended her medical license to protect current and future patients.

Physician Assistants are not allowed to perform medical services without supervision from a doctor.

The state says the doctor who was supervising Lorenzo stopped back on July 1--meaning they believe she'd been knowingly practicing illegally for three months.  

Lorenzo had similar problems with lack of supervision by a doctor back in 2013.

"No one who we've spoken to has ever seen the doctor whose name is on their bills. Why is that?" Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears asked Angela Lorenzo in July 2013.

"Um, I don't know," Lorenzo answered. "I mean, Dr. Clayson works here. She's available at the patient's discretion."

This time around, when the board caught Lorenzo in September, she promised, in writing, to immediately stop practicing.  

But five days later, investigators found she wrote a Phentermine prescription for a patient.

Phentermine is a dangerous diet drug that's classified as a controlled substance.  

The board also ordered Lorenzo to produce records from her practice which they say she knowingly and willfully failed to do.

It all stems from a 16-count complaint charging Lorenzo with medical malpractice, and unsafe, unprofessional conduct.  

The board has accused her of prescribing excessive amounts of opiates to three patients, one of which died from an overdose.  

The state also says she lied to renew her license when she denied previous disciplinary action by the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy.

Lorenzo's license will remain suspended until a board hearing on November 29 to determine whether the suspension will continue.  

Via text, she said she couldn't go on camera today, but she did send the following statement:

It has always been my intent to be compliant to all state and federal laws. My legal counsel will be responding to the false allegations and will show the how the Nevada Medical Board needs to be regulated and have checks and balances.   

False allegations are affecting patient care, and I believe this to be the most important factor is that no patients are left without care. The governor is responsible for this agency and I would ask that all practitioners get involved to restore honor to healthcare and keep our healthcare practitioners working to save lives in Nevada. If left unregulated, doctors and PA’s will leave the state. As we know we need great medical care from practitioners that care.

In 2016 governmental agencies were notified of the drug reporting errors in a report that we all rely on for accurate data. This has been a cover-up. The Nevada Pharmacy Board and the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners were informed in 2016 about the mme errors repeated of over 9 months to all state and federal agencies.  

This explains why egregious errors (that weren't even compatible with human life) in Patient A, B, C show outrageous drug amounts only on the Nevada Prescription Monitoring Program mme column. These errors have now been corrected and what was 1800 mg of mme now show a reasonable amount of 45 mg of mme. (90 mme is a higher risk and should consider a referral to pain management.)  My formal complaint still shows their old errors and is slanderous.

The Nevada Prescription Monitoring Program (pmp) did not start including a morphine milligram equivalents (mme) column until December 2015 and since then the mme has been reported inaccurately exaggerated for 9 months from 12/2015 – 8-2016. 

I was one of many prescribers that has been affected due to these errors which caused unwarranted Pharmacy Board, Medical Board, DEA investigation’s and costing an increase in healthcare due to needless attorney fees spent to defend the government's errors.

I hope that my patients continue to stand by and support me as they know that the results are proof of great medical care.