Greensboro, NC (WGHP) — A Greensboro doctor lost his license after the North Carolina Medical Board determined he was over-prescribing controlled substances to people whose records show may have been addicts or giving away the drugs.
Wayland Wilson McKenzie, a doctor who specialized in family medicine with Cone Health, appeared before the board on Thursday.
The NCMB cited the records of six patients.
“With all six patients, Dr. McKenzie engaged in inappropriate prescribing of narcotics, benzodiazepines and other controlled substance without substantiating a diagnosis justifying the issuance of a controlled substance,” the NCMB wrote.
In a report, the board said he continued prescribing controlled substances despite numerous red flags.
A patient was taken to the hospital due to an opiate overdose, a patient said they ran out of medication early due to overuse, multiple patients tested positive for drugs like cocaine, marijuana and heroin and a patient was diagnosed with an opiate addiction.
“All of these significant red flags were not addressed by Dr. McKenzie in his charts and Dr. McKenzie continue to prescribe controlled substances to these patients without interruption or documented counseling despite these red flags,” the NCMB wrote.
One patient repeatedly indicated signs that they were possibly abusing the medication or giving them to someone else.
His notes include comments such as “Patient today is reporting possible missing meds by stealing,” “Patient is here today with report that Policeman in Virginia took several days of his opioid meds because it was in an unmarked pill container” and “Patient states that he did not get a full prescription. Thus, he is requesting refills today.”
Four urine drug screening for one patient showed no evidence benzodiazepine metabolite in their system, which suggests the patient may not have been taking the medication and may have been giving it to someone else.
The board reports McKenzie was giving doses of opioids above CDC recommendations and did not screen for abuse or addiction, didn’t ask about past or current drug or alcohol use, had no clear treatment goals and wasn’t adequately documenting his care of these patients.
Records also suggest that he never spoke with his patients about blood pressures readings outside of the normal range.
The board sent him a private letter of concern in July 2015 directing him to periodically reevaluate patients and sufficiently document that ongoing evaluation and treatment plan, but it did not improve and instead he began prescribing more controlled substances, the NCMB wrote.
McKenzie reported wrote about 11,300 controlled substance prescriptions in 2015 and 2016.
From Jan. 1, 2017, to Feb. 2, 2019, he wrote about 21,190 controlled substance prescriptions.
