Psychiatrist James H. Egan discouraged 11-year-old patient from reporting sexual abuse

November 10, 2011

On August 29, 2011, the New York State Department of Public Health censured and reprimanded psychiatrist James Harold Egan for conduct for which he was disciplined in the state of Maryland and which, if it had occurred in the state of New York, would have constituted misconduct as negligence, gross negligence and failure to maintain a record for each patient that accurately reflects the evaluation and treatment of the patient.

In July 2010, the Maryland Board of Physicians reprimanded Egan and placed him on 18 months probation for failure to appropriately assess or formulate an adequate plan to address the report by a patient, an 11-year-old boy, of being sexually abused and the psychological effect/trauma from the incident; failure to assess or document an assessment of the patient’s suicide risk; failure to maintain professional decorum during an office visit/evaluation in that he made inappropriate statements to the patient after he described being sexually abused; inappropriately discouraging the patient from pursuing a police investigation and failure to keep adequate medical records.

In April 2011, the Virginia Board of Medicine also reprimanded Egan, relative to the Maryland action.

Source: Consent Order In Re: James Harold Egan, M.D., License No. 0101-042094, Before the Virginia Board of Medicine and Consent Order in the Matter of James Harold Egan, BPMC No. 11-209, New York State Board for Professional Medical Conduct.