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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A south-central Kentucky doctor was charged Wednesday with prescribing pain medications outside of her professional practice and with doing so in one instance that resulted in the death of a patient.
A federal grand jury in Bowling Green handed up a 13-count indictment of Dr. Clella Louise Hayes, 39, of Glasgow, alleging she issued and authorizing prescriptions for fentanyl, morphine, oxycodone, Demerol, hydrocodone, Cheratussin, a cold medication containing codeine, and Valium over a five-year period.
Hayes was arrested Wednesday. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Louisville said Hayes surrendered her Drug Enforcement Administration number needed to write prescriptions and was released on bond. Court records did not list an attorney for her.
Hayes is listed among the family practitioners at Monroe County Medical Center in Tompkinsville. A message left for Hayes and hospital administrators was not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.
The indictment comes four months after the FBI, Kentucky State Police detectives and drug task force members raided Hayes' office in Tompkinsville. The March 17 raid resulted in investigators taking a variety of medical documents for review.
Hayes is charged with distributing a variety of drugs between 2009 and 2014. Grand jurors alleged that on Sept. 19, 2011, Hayes gave a patient identified only as "A.R." a prescription for fentanyl, a pain reliever that is also used as an anesthetic, causing the patient to die.
Grand jurors also alleged that, between June 2009 and September 2011, Hayes intentionally dispensed and distributed multiple drugs, including morphine, Oxycodone, Demerol and hydrocodone, to the same patient, outside the course of professional medical practice.
The other charges stem from allegations that Hayes dispensed a variety of drugs to eight patients between June 2010 and March 2014.
The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure lists Hayes' license as active with no disciplinary actions taken against her. Hayes was first licensed to practice medicine in Kentucky in June 2008 after graduating from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in 2005.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell.
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