Health Care Professionals
If you are a Doctor, Nurse, Pharmacist or other health care professional licensed by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs , and you are experiencing “challenges” in your professional and/or personal life which may lead to criminal and/or administrative prosecution and possible loss of license, it is imperative that you contact Attorney Paletta at , or call 412.391.7999 immediately.
If, for example, a hospital suspects "diversion" of drugs, an investigation will be initiated and the individual suspected will be questioned utilizing internal hospital records. The suspected person will be pressured to provide a statement which can easily be an admission of responsibility or guilt. The results of this investigation, including any admissions, will be presented to law enforcement, often the Narcotics Investigation Unit of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office. Therefore, one’s "cooperation" will translate into a criminal prosecution, and consequent administrative prosecution by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs which would likely result in suspension of professional license.
Attorney Paletta has extensive experience representing Doctors and Nurses in BOTH criminal and administrative prosecutions. Please consider some of Mr. Paletta’s actual cases:
- Following medical treatment, a nurse became addicted to pain-killers, and was diverting those drugs from her employer hospital. An internal investigation to the missing medication was commenced, resulting in hospital investigators interviewing the suspected nurse. Because of the moral need to confess, and without consulting a lawyer, the nurse made a statement admitting to facts which formed the basis for a criminal prosecution by the Pennsylvania Attorney General, and an administrative prosecution to suspend her nursing license by the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs. Attorney Paletta resolved the criminal prosecution by negotiating a plea bargain to a reduction of the charges and a penalty of Probation without Verdict. This resulted in an Expungement of her criminal record, and no nursing license suspension.
- During the course of administering drugs to his patients in a hospital, a Doctor was simultaneously diverting a portion of those drugs for his own use. The Hospital discovered the diversion, and as a result, the Doctor was charged by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office with violations of the Crimes Code and Pharmacy Act. Attorney Paletta negotiated with the Attorney General’s Office and the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs to successfully conclude both the criminal and administrative prosecution in a manner which permitted the Doctor to eventually expunge his record and retain his professional license
