Psychiatrist Hassan Salih surrenders license on charges of indiscriminate prescribing

June 4, 2012

On October 17, 2011, psychiatrist Hassan Salih surrendered his medical license to the Virginia Board of Medicine. This follows the July 14, 2011 summary suspension of his license.

According to the Board’s document, Salih prescribed multiple medications to a patient on the patient’s initial visit without documenting a comprehensive history, without obtaining treatment records from the patient’s prior treating physicians and without documenting the basis for his diagnosis. When the patient returned six months later, Salih again prescribed multiple drugs, again without obtaining patient information or documenting the rationale for the drugs.

Among the drugs prescribed were multiple anti-anxiety drugs, about which Salih neglected to documented why or acknowledging the potential impact of these drugs when taken together.

The document states that Salid prescribed controlled substances to nine other patients between October 2010 and February 2011 and in each case failed to conduct or verify appropriate physical exams or evaluations. He failed to properly monitor two of the nine patients for the amount or frequency of drugs being prescribed, resulting in the patients being able to obtain unreasonable amounts of drugs.

Source: Consent Order in re: Hassan Salih, M.D., License No. 0101-019348, Before the Board of Medicine, State of Virginia.