Med Board Fines Two Doctors After Bristol Hospital Patient Dies Of Sepsis

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The state Medical Examining Board today issued $5,000 fines to three physicians including two Bristol Hospital Emergency Department doctors who failed to diagnose and treat a patient with sepsis who later died.

Another physician was also disciplined by the board for failing to act on test results.

Dr. Syed Hadi and Dr. Waile Ramadan both treated a man who was brought to the Bristol Hospital Emergency Department on Jan. 7, 2019 with a high fever and other symptoms of a bacterial infection but never prescribed antibiotics, according to state Department of Public Health (DPH) investigators.

The man died of sepsis two days later, documents said. The case was the subject of a malpractice lawsuit filed against the physicians, Starling Physicians and Bristol Hospital which was settled in 2021.  DPH opened an investigation of the case after an inspection found violations at the hospital in 2019, documents said.

The physicians failed to meet the standard of care by not reviewing test results including a positive culture for bacteria, not communicating with other hospital staff and not properly diagnosing the patient, a consent order said.

Hadi and Ramadan both received a $5,000 fine from the board. Both physicians have completed coursework in infection control including the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis, communication with other health care providers and documentation standards, documents said.

The board also issued a fine and a permanent restriction on the prescription registration of Dr. Alfred Ranieri, of Medical Associates of New Haven, who prescribed controlled substances several times to two patients without properly determining or documenting the need, documents said.

Ranieri voluntarily gave up his controlled substance registration in July 2020, documents said. The DPH opened an investigation into the allegations in November 2019 after receiving a complaint from the state Department of Consumer Protection Drug Control Division, investigators said.

Under the terms of the discipline approved by the board, Ranieri must pay a $5,000 fine, his drug registration is permanently restricted from prescribing nearly all controlled substances and his Connecticut medical license is reprimanded.

The board also reprimanded the license of a Hartford Healthcare primary care physician who failed to treat a patient’s back pain and irregular urine analysis in 2018, DPH documents said.

Dr. Othman El-Alami treated the patient over the course of two decades but failed to maintain adequate records, failed to act on radiographic and urinalysis test results and failed to adequately treat the patient’s back pain, a DPH investigation found.

El-Alami’s medical license was reprimanded and placed on probation for six months while he completed coursework in proper clinical documentation as part of the discipline issued by the board.

3 thoughts on “Med Board Fines Two Doctors After Bristol Hospital Patient Dies Of Sepsis

  1. Also included was a mention of
    Dr. A. Ranieri who “failed to determine or document” the need for
    controlled substances to treat a patient’s pain. Having been involved in medicine my entire life, working 38 years as a RN, & myself having been a patient with intractable pain for many many years, I wish to comment !!
    This situation makes it sound as though Dr. R. examined the pt & thought to himself… Ahh, let’s see….
    today is Tuesday and the weather is sunny….. hmmmm …what a great day to dole out some controlled substances…..& then subsequently
    wrote script/scripts for same. PERIOD.
    I will bet no one ever spoke to the patient/patients re : being provided those controlled pain meds, level of pain, relief with other meds and on & on & on . NO, evil Dr. R shall just be punished, embarrassed and have not only a costly fine, but a
    BLACK MARK on his otherwise clean record. There’s NO other punishment I’m certain, that would be acceptable to “The Board”. Oh, & let’s not consider all the fine years of practice this physician has on his resume’. Nope.
    He just woke up on a Tuesday & decided it was a great day to prescribe some narcotics.
    I am SO done with the CDC & subsequently Licensing Boards being WAY over the top when it comes to legitimate pain control. ? It has taken the CDC more than five years to rewrite their disastrous report on controlled substances. Meantime, thousands of patients with chronic intractable pain have been cut down or CUT OFF from the only avenue to some physical comfort they have ever had! The opioid crisis continues to rocket out if control. Guess it wasn’t pain management patients that really caused that after all…..was it ?
    I’m really sorry for Dr Ranieri & all the other docs in the same boat who have become the whipping post for those unfortunately “in charge”.