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Doctor faces prescription abuse chargesFree Access




Dr. Carolyn Rose

Dr. Carolyn Rose

A local physician, Dr. Carolyn Rose, has been accused by the Medical Board of California of a number of medical missteps.

The board is accusing Rose of repeatedly prescribing excessive amounts of controlled drugs for patients, and more. A 46-page report filed by the board on July 6 lists five serious violations by Dr. Rose: gross negligence, repeated negligent acts, excessive prescribing, incompetence and failure to maintain adequate and accurate medical records.

A review by the Board of the Controlled Substances Utilization and Review System, known as CURES, raised concerns about Rose’s prescribing practices, the medical board said. CURES, maintained by the Department of Justice, tracks all Schedule II, III and IV controlled substances dispensed in California.

According to the Fresno Bee, a mandate for doctors to consult CURES prior to prescribing, ordering, administering or furnishing controlled substances becomes effective in October 2018.

The investigation into Rose’s practices was opened after the California Highway Patrol notified the board that they had arrested one of Rose’s patients for driving while impaired. During the investigation, officers discovered controlled substances in the possession of the patient that were prescribed by Rose.

A subsequent review raised concerns about Rose.

Rose, who is employed at the John C. Fremont Family Physicians clinic in Mariposa, did not wish to issue a comment regarding the accusations. Speaking on behalf of the John C. Fremont Healthcare District, Chief Executive Officer Matthew Matthiessen said, “due to the pending status, no comment will be made about the accusations until a hearing is scheduled and held.”

“This is a pending proceeding with the California Medical Board,” Matthiessen added. “The hospital’s medical staff will review the matter based on the findings of the medical board.”

Matthiessen said he wanted to “reiterate” JCF’s commitment to its partnership with Mariposa County on the opioid task force.

“Our Living Well series meets twice a month and provides people with tools they need to manage their chronic pain,” Matthiessen said. “If you want more information about the series please contact Doucette Alvarez at (209) 966-3631 x4006.”

The information contained in the report about Rose lists several examples of alleged misconduct.

In one instance, Rose prescribed “Patient A,” a 64-year-old woman, with near-monthly prescriptions of morphine sulfate, methadone and carisoprodol (Soma). The report said that during one treatment period, Rose didn’t provide the patient informed consent regarding the risks of methadone and did not elicit an adequate family history of heart rhythm abnormalities for the patient prior to prescribing methadone. Rose also allegedly did not offer the patient safer alternatives to narcotics to treat her pain.

In the case of a 68-year-old woman, “Patient C,” the patient had a history of chronic lumbar disc disease, chronic pain with muscle spasms, anxiety, insomnia, peptic ulcer disease, hypertension and more.

Rose apparently prescribed a combination of muscle relaxants, opiates, sedatives and benzodiazepines.

Rose stated that the patient was difficult to deal with. She said she tried to reduce the patient’s oxycodone, but “could not convince this lady well to do [sic.] But I’m learning now that I can’t listen to them. I have to just do it anyway, okay. So she wasn’t willing… and immediately the next month wanted to go back up again which I did, which was a mistake, okay, so, and that’s where she stayed ‘til she died.”

Rose stated that Patient C was “on a lot of — too many medicines…”

The report goes on to claim that Rose ignored red flags for opiate abuse. “Patient C reported that her medications were not working, requested higher doses and refused to decrease her use of opiate medications.”

Rose’s prescribing brought the ire of United Healthcare, an insurance company, which sent three letters in 2015, the board said.

The board claims that Rose did not document that she had reviewed them, considered the warnings or discussed the letters with the patient.

The report goes on to list a series of other patients whom Rose also allegedly treated improperly.

According to her biography on JCF’s website, Rose attended California State University, Los Angeles, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Zoology in 1971, and a Masters of Science in Zoology in 1974. She received her M.D in 1980 from the School of Medicine at the University of the City of Juarez, Mexico.

She practiced and was co-owner of Mariposa Family Medicine from 1984 to July 2016, joining the healthcare district in August 2016. She has been affiliated with JCF Hospital since 1984 as an active medical staff member with admitting privileges.

She is married to Dr. Robert Rose, another employee at JCF.

7 responses to “Doctor faces prescription abuse charges”

  1. tammy says:

    please help me find the right coarse of action. this happened to me and the consequences were serious, and i had a known allergy. this had to do with HORIZONS last year and dr, kelly sharrar. I am out of the area, out of the loop and need legal assistance .
    thank you tammy redfern

  2. Robin Barnes says:

    Hi, my name is Robin Barnes my mother was a patient of dr. Rose and she did not receive the advocate care that was needed and she was over prescribe pain medication everything and she passed away .. which was link to dr. Rose and her mismanagement of my mother’s care I would really like to speak with someone about this because I do believe that my mother’s case involves malpractice and I lawyer I spoke with lawyers and they told me that I absolutely cuz I have all her medical records that doctorow’s did not provide adequate medical treatment for my mother but because my mother was a stay-at-home mother she and didn’t earne wages that could be recompensated for…so no lawyer would take the case because there’s no money to be made from it but that doesn’t take away from the fact that my mother died for no reason.
    I also believe that my mother is one of the cases that she’s being investigated about because she missed diagnosed my mother and overmedicated her with numerous opioids and muscle relaxants and mood stabilizer.. she failed to realize that my mother wasn’t in excruciating pain because my mother had stage 4 melanoma cancer that had spread from her shoulder to her lungs which doctor Rose was the doctor that had cut out the problematic melanoma spot but never did any scans to show that the cancer had either been cut out or to show that it had spread throughout her body and she was never treated for that and she was constantly for a year having problems breathing and Doctor Rose just said that she had bronchitis and kept prescribing antibiotics but when those antibiotics never helped she never went any further she just kept prescribing my mother pain medication instead of doing the scans to show that she had cancer throughout her body. And when we did find out that the cancer was there it was already at stage 4 and my mom soon passed away after that where the cancer doctors told me that if it had been caught my mother would still be alive today because they have excellent treatment for that type of cancer.

    • Dana Behr says:

      In my opinion, after being misdiagnosed by Carolyn Rose is that she is a monster. And a fraud. She should not be allowed to practice medicine.

  3. Iris Chynoweth says:

    Wow, she got her M.D. degree in Mexico! Her husband is not any better. He failed to properly diagnose my husband’s cancer and failed to refer him for appropriate tests. After we changed doctors he received the correct diagnosis but it was too late. Makes me wonder how many people have died due to the incompetence and negligence of these two doctors.

  4. username5860 says:

    Doesn’t surprise me one bit about a JCF employee. I was admitted a few years ago for conjunctivitis in my right eye and the staff was wisecracking about my medical condition while I was in the examination room. They should close the exam room door if they want to talk trash. This is one of the worst hospitals I have ever been to.

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