In May 2022, near the end of a 12-hour shift in the labor and delivery unit at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, an anesthesiologist was seen leaving an on-call suite bathroom looking disheveled and glassy-eyed and staggering as she walked. Colleagues stopped her from driving away, and sheriff's deputies who responded allowed her to leave by ride-share. The hospital reported the incident to the Medical Board of California.
According to the board's disciplinary order, the physician told investigators in early 2023 that she had self-administered propofol that day and felt drowsy within about 30 seconds, acknowledging that she could have been called to an operating room afterward. She also described taking home a propofol syringe on one earlier occasion and taking home glass vials of leftover fentanyl, hydromorphone and midazolam about 11 or 12 times in April 2022. The order noted that the hospital did not track disposal of empty vials, which allowed the leftover medication to be removed without detection.
A board-retained psychiatrist initially concluded in late 2022 that the physician's practice would pose a danger to the public, then in March 2023 added an addendum stating that practice would be safe under restrictions. The board did not issue a cease-practice order during the investigation, a decision a patient advocacy group criticized.
Under a stipulated settlement adopted in early 2024, the license was revoked with the revocation stayed and the physician placed on seven years' probation. Conditions include random drug testing, a practice monitor, psychotherapy, participation in a substance abuse support group, an ethics course, notifying patients of the probation, abstaining from alcohol and non-prescribed controlled substances, and a prohibition on solo practice. The physician's attorney stated that no patients were adversely affected and that she is compliant with the terms.