INDIANAPOLIS — After hearing testimony from six witnesses in the Indiana attorney general’s request to suspend Rensselaer Dr. Patrick Sheets’ license to practice medicine, the Indiana State Medical Licensing Board voted to deny the request.
Over the course of two hours Thursday, the board heard testimony in the case against Sheets, alleging he prescribed controlled substances to known addicts, engaged in sexual relationships with patients and stored patient files in an unlocked shed on the property of one of his homes.
The primary reason for the denial, board Vice President Kirk Masten said, was because of the Indiana State Board of Pharmacy’s decision to suspend Sheets’ license to prescribe controlled substance on July 14, where Sheets agreed to the terms of the 90-day suspension.
Unable to prescribe controlled substances until mid-October, Masten said Sheets’ abilities as a physician are limited.
“He doesn’t have a DEA (number), or you know, a CSR, so I don’t see how he’s a threat if we said the body of this summary suspension is based on overprescribing,” Masten said. “So, I don’t think the burden has been met here.”
Carah Rochester, deputy attorney general, said in opening statements the state had collected evidence from several witnesses to show Sheets allegedly demonstrated improper prescribing patterns, inability to safeguard confidential patient health information and blurred the lines of patient, employee and personal relationships.
Rachel Russell, an attorney with Keffer Hirschauer representing Sheets, said the allegations the state has made do not rise to the level of “clear and immediate danger” needed for a summary suspension of a medical license.
“We also think this is a matter of office politics we’re going to talk about today,” Russell said. “And about how our client worked with people in his office, and perhaps they worked or did not work with him.”
The state’s first witness in the case, Kendra Reyes, a human resources director in Demotte, said when she worked for Sheets as manager of the Sheets Family Practice, she saw him prescribe controlled substances on a “daily basis.”
“There was times where people would come into their appointments for their refills. There’s times where it would be done via text, calls, social media,” Reyes said.
Patients with appointments for controlled substances, Reyes said, would last anywhere from a few minutes to several minutes, not always with previous standing appointments.
Reyes said Sheets’ key fob, a small device similar in size to a USB drive needed when prescribing controlled substances, was at times given to nurses or left in open areas unsecured.
While working for Sheets, Reyes said he prescribed her Adderall for weight loss.
Jamie Scholl, a licensed practical nurse who formerly worked for Sheets, said the fob for controlled substances was at times placed in an unlocked mailbox outside of the office.
“I recall that it had been left there overnight in one instance, and other than that I am unaware of how long it would be left in there,” Scholl said. “I would have to message him and tell him that he had mail so he knew the key fob was left in the mailbox for him.”
Scholl said messaging Sheets “you have mail” was their code phrase for the fob being available for him in the unlocked mailbox.
When it came to drug testing patients prescribed controlled substances, Scholl said there was no deliberate pattern to who would be screened for drugs. Scholl said she could recall “two or three” times when a drug test came back positive for illicit substances.
But Scholl said Sheets continued to prescribe controlled substances to those patients anyway.
“He said that everybody deserves a second chance,” Scholl said.
Scholl said in one instance, she was a witness to a liposuction procedure by Sheets in his office, despite the room not being a sterile room.
Jennifer Jordan, a former employee, said Sheets also prescribed her Adderall, as well as Xanax. On several occasions, Sheets made Jordan uncomfortable, she said, by making sexual comments directed at her and by threatening her employment at his practice.
In 2021, Jordan said she witnessed a sexual encounter between Sheets and a patient at the clinic after operating hours. After witnessing the encounter, Jordan said Sheets instructed her to say she never saw it.
Requesting clarification of whether Jordan witnessed Sheets actively having sexual intercourse with the patient, Russell asked Jordan to explain.
“Their clothes were not on,” Jordan said.
Sheets, testifying to the board, said none of the claims were true and denied the accusations of sexual harassment.
Regina Sheets, Sheets’ estranged wife, said that on the couple’s rural property in Brook, a large shed also held patient records alongside their holiday decor and car-washing supplies. On several occasions, Sheets brought home patient records, Regina said, asking her to burn them. In photos taken by Regina, submitted into state’s evidence, doorknobs were visibly missing with no working locks.
As she testified, Sheets stared at his estranged wife while shaking his head.
“I am going to ask the board to instruct the board to ask the respondent to stop engaging with the witness, please,” Rochester said.
Records that were still in the shed, Regina said, were seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration in June.
Sheets told the board that through an order in his pending divorce with Regina, he has not been permitted onto the couple’s Brook property in nearly two years. He said any patient records found inside the shed were those of deceased patients that he was legally required to keep for seven years before being permitted to destroy them.
What benefit would she have from testifying against her estranged husband? Deputy Attorney General Kara Burgess asked Regina.
“It would be no benefit to me,” Regina said. “We have a (child) together.”
Jillian Ellison is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. She can be reached via email at jellison@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Indiana Medical Licensing Board denies request to suspend Rensselaer doctor’s license
Reporting by Jillian Ellison, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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