A Miami-Dade ophthalmogy has been charged with violating Florida’s strict licensure requirements by prescribing unnecessary treatments that are medically unnecessary.
Dr. Jeffrey H. Johnson, 59, of Miami- Dade, was charged Thursday with three counts of misdemeanor endangering the health and welfare of a patient and three counts each of failure to comply with a valid license, a medical condition or a governmental order.
Johnson is scheduled to appear in court Friday.
He is also being held in the Palm Beach County Jail on $500,000 bail.
The case is being prosecuted by the Palm Bay County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Health.
Johnson was the Florida Board of Ophthalmology’s chief medical officer and a former president of the state’s largest ophthalmic society.
He retired in April 2017.
The ophthalmostery said he was fired from his position in March 2016 after complaints from a patient who alleged he used unnecessary pain medication and prescribed it without a valid medical license.
It said he had been under investigation for months.
H. J. Johnson said he would cooperate with the investigation.
He declined to comment.
HJ Johnson is a licensed ophthalmologist in Miami-dade.
He has been practicing medicine in Miami since 1991 and previously worked in the ophthalmiamology program at Miami-based Miami-Ohio University Hospital.
A patient who was treated by Johnson after being given a cortisone shot at the end of March told police that he was not given a valid doctor’s note because he had not signed a form stating he was eligible to receive a pain medication.
She told police she thought she had overdosed because the medication made her dizzy and “a bit dizzy,” according to the complaint.
The patient, who declined to be identified, said she was treated at Johnson’s office in January 2016 after being told she needed a corticosteroid.
A month later, she told a colleague at the office she was still taking the medication and told a hospital employee that she had used it as a painkiller.
Johnson told her that she was on the wrong medication and that she needed to stop taking it, the complaint said.
She said she told Johnson that she “needed to go home and have some rest,” but Johnson said “he is a doctor and I should do my job,” the complaint says.
The next day, the patient said she saw Johnson on the hospital’s computer screen and that he “tried to sedate her,” according.
The complaint said that Johnson also told her she needed “a break from all this,” and that the patient had “got a headache.”
She told Johnson she needed more time to recover, the court document said.
In addition to the pain medication, the hospital received several other prescriptions, including one for oxycodone, for which the patient was prescribed an amount of morphine equivalent to less than five milligrams of morphine per day, according to records obtained by NBC News.
The doctor prescribed the morphine to a patient, according the complaint, and it was later determined that the oxycodan was prescribed for an additional patient, whose name has not been released.
According to records, the oxycontin was prescribed to another patient at the same time that the pain medicine was prescribed, according.
Johnson did not respond to messages left Thursday at his office, but his attorney, Stephen H. Davis, said he did not know about the charges against Johnson.
Davis said Johnson is not licensed to practice medicine in Florida and that Johnson’s position as a doctor is “without any authority whatsoever.”
Davis said he plans to fight the charges and said Johnson has not violated any Florida law.
Johnson also has been sued in Florida by another patient who claimed she was prescribed the oxyacetamide drug, which was a pain reliever for chronic pain, according, the Miami Herald reported.
He said he used it to treat a seizure disorder that had begun after a stroke in 2013 and that “he used it on several occasions to alleviate his pain and numbness,” according the newspaper.
The Miami Herald story said the patient sought treatment at Johnson and the doctor said he prescribed the drug without a prescription.
He was sued in May 2016 by the patient and her attorney and the case was dismissed in June 2016.
The other patient, a woman, said in court papers that Johnson had given her painkillers, but they were “medically unnecessary” and that they were prescribed without a medical indication, according with the Herald.
The woman said she also asked to see the patient’s medical records, but that Johnson “did not answer any of her questions,” the paper reported.
Johnson has a reputation for being harsh with patients, the Herald reported, saying he has threatened to withhold medication for “fraudulent” patients and has been quoted as saying patients should not seek care unless they have a serious illness or are at risk of suffering serious injuries.
Johnson’s attorneys have disputed that.
“I am a patient’s physician and a patient