Yale New Haven Hospital physician charged
Doctor accused of illegally prescribing oxycodone pills
A widely recognized physician at Yale New Haven Hospital was charged Wednesday with illegally prescribing hundreds of oxycodone pills while working as a medical resident, according to a federal indictment made public Wednesday.
Dr. Jennifer Farrell, 37, who has been recognized repeatedly for establishing an emergency medical training program in Bangladesh, also is accused of — but was not indicted for — buying hundreds more oxycodone and fentanyl bills through illegal internet transactions.
The State Department, among others, credited Farrell with developing CriticaLink, a social network designed to mobilize a network of first responders trained for for medical emergencies, such as motor vehicle crashes, in Bangladesh.
Farrell based the project on her a Fulbright fellowship that she spent in Bangladesh training volunteer first responders in emergency medical skills. CriticaLink was recognized as one of the best new mobile apps in the world at the 2015 World Summit Awards.
Fraudulent prescriptions
The indictment and other court records assert that Farrell accessed hospital records to identify patients whose medical histories made them candidates for treatment with powerful pain medications. She is accused of writing prescriptions for those patients, but arranging for the medications to be picked up by others. A patient alerted authorities to the scheme after learning that a fraudulent prescription had been issued in her name.
Farrell was taking some of the illegally prescribed pills herself, and days before her arrest on July 31, she told federal investigators that she had illegally ordered 13 shipments of opioid pills over the so-called “dark web.” She was released on bond after her arrest and is receiving unspecified treatment in North Carolina, according to court records.
Federal authorities said Farrell took advantage of a flaw in a hospital computer program to write illegal prescriptions. The prescriptions should have been approved by a senior physician, the authorities said.
From July 2017 to June 2019, Farrell lived in New Haven and worked in Yale’s emergency department. For a year starting in March 2018, she wrote at least 35 prescriptions for oxycodone “for non-legitimate medical purposes outside the scope of her professional practice in the name of at least five individuals,” federal officials said.
Farrell did not see any of the individuals for any medical purpose at any hospital facility during the entire period of her residency, officials said. If convicted, she faces a maximum term of 20 years in prison on each count.
In a resume posted on the internet, Farrell identifies herself as a Fulbright Scholar and founder of a company that provided training in emergency medical response in Bangladesh. Farrell could not be reached for comment.