Leading Psychiatrist Is Suspended, Must Take Ethics Courses

A prominent South County psychiatrist has had his medical license suspended for a month and been placed on probation for five years by the Medical Board of California.

Dr. Irwin I. Rosenfeld, past president of the Orange County Psychiatric Society, also was required to enroll in ethics, clinical and other continuing education courses as a condition of keeping his license.

Rosenfeld, who practices in Laguna Hills, was accused last year of having sex several times with a female patient and prescribing narcotics to an addicted patient in exchange for cash. These allegations, however, were largely dismissed as part of a settlement negotiated with the medical board this summer.

In the suspension order, Rosenfeld admitted to gross negligence in violating drug statutes and in repeated excessive prescribing of narcotics between 1992 and 1994 for the male patient, who was being treated for psychiatric disorders and drug abuse problems.

Rosenfeld served his 30-day suspension beginning Sept. 11 and is again practicing. He paid more than $7,500 to reimburse the state for the cost of its investigation.

David Rosner, an attorney for Rosenfeld, said the patient had “manipulated the doctor as well as many others into prescribing drugs for him.” Rosner said the settlement resolved the issue without his client “taking the risk that he would lose” at the hearing.

The attorney who handled the negotiations for the medical board could not be reached for comment. Other officials declined comment.

Rosenfeld has completed all the necessary course requirements for 1999, Rosner said. The physician will be required to take 40 hours of continuing education courses each year of his probation, focusing on maintaining proper boundaries between patient and physician, according to the settlement.

The accusation described the male patient as a manic depressive and accused Rosenfeld of “repeated acts of clearly excessive prescribing” the narcotic Demerol for the man. It also accuses Rosenfeld of charging the man $5,000 “in return for which [he] essentially prescribed Demerol” for him.

In the settlement, Rosenfeld maintained that the $5,000 fee he charged the male patient was for legitimate treatment and not for furnishing the patient with drugs.

The allegations concerning the woman were dismissed as part of the settlement.

Rosenfeld met the woman patient in 1994 while she was being treated at local hospital for suicidal thoughts and a schizoid disorder and diagnosed her as having a probable sexual addiction, according to legal documents. During treatment in 1994 and 1995 he allegedly used hypnosis and repeatedly had sex with her, according to the accusation. The state also accused Rosenfeld of paying $1,800 toward the woman’s breast enlargement surgery, the papers say.

Rosner said the state dropped these accusations because the woman had credibility problems. A lawyer for the state last year described its case as solid and said it had “corroborating evidence in the case of the woman.”

Rosenfeld was licensed in California in 1977 and was a faculty member at UC Irvine College of Medicine from 1981-95.