East Hartford doctor fined for groping female patient, medical board rules

The state Medical Examining Board on Tuesday disciplined three physicians with fines and sanctions, including an East Hartford endocrinologist accused of inappropriately touching a female patient.

According to a consent order approved by the board, Dr. Adarsh Jha, who practices endocrinology with Prime HealthCare P.C. in East Hartford, is required to permanently have a female employee present acting as a chaperone when he examines female patients after a woman complained to the state Department of Public Health in the days following a medical appointment in November 2019.

An investigation conducted by the DPH’s Practitioner Licensing and Investigations unit concluded that Jha had done a breast examination on the woman that was inappropriate and unnecessary for the patient’s care, agency documents said. Jha also failed to document the breast examination in the woman’s medical records, DPH officials said.

Jha denied the allegations, but agreed to the stipulations outlined in the consent order. He has since completed coursework in medical chaperoning and in avoiding ethical boundary violations, DHP officials said. Jha was also fined $5,000 and must submit to random reviews of his female patient files.

Jha is “remorseful,” according to his attorney Edward Mayer, but continued to deny any wrongdoing. “We estimate that he has treated over 60,000 patients,” Mayer told the board during a virtual monthly meeting Tuesday afternoon. “At no point in his career has he had a complaint of doing anything inappropriate.”

The board also fined Dr. Desiree Clarke, formerly with United Vein and Vascular Centers in Southbury, $7,500 and placed her license on probation for one year after a 78-year-old female patient complained about the treatment she received from July 2018 to March 2019, documents show. Clarke is now practicing in Florida, DPH officials said.

Clarke took ultrasound images, performed procedures, including chemical ablations, which erase varicose veins but misclassified the severity of the patient’s vein disease, officials said. She also didn’t create a treatment plan that reflected the severity of the woman’s vein disease, performed an excessive amount of procedures on the woman, failed to employ objective assessment tools to determine the woman’s response to treatment and failed to adjust the treatment plan despite a worsening of her symptoms, DPH officials said in a consent order.

Clarke admitted that her documentation in the case was “insufficient” to document her basis for her clinical judgement and treatment plan, DPH officials said. As part of the discipline issued by the board, Clarke’s license is reprimanded and she must at her own expense hire a physician to review 20 percent of her patient records, meet with the DPH every three months during the probationary period and have her supervisor provide reports to the agency every three months.

A physician with PACT Primary Care in Madison was also fined $5,000 and given one year of probation after she failed to appropriately address, monitor and treat a patient’s pain, anxiety and addiction issues for nearly six years, according to DPH documents.

Dr. Helen Ede treated the patient from August 2014 to March 2020 but failed to maintain adequate treatment records, failed to check the state’s prescription monitoring system before prescribing controlled substances for the patient, failed to document, which controlled substances were prescribed and continued to prescribe controlled substances without exploring alternative therapies to address pain and anxiety, documents said.

Under the terms of a consent order approved by the board, Ede must successfully complete a course in documentation standards within the first six months of her probation and must at her own expense hire a physician to review 20 percent of her current patient files. She is also required to meet with her supervisor every month throughout the probationary period and must have her supervisor provide the DPH with reports every three months while she is on probation.