A former Hanford doctor will be monitored by the Washington State Department of Health for 30 months after prescribing painkillers to a dancer he met at an adult club in Umatilla, according to the Tri-City Herald.
The Herald reported that Dr. Steven Angerbauer, 61, a former Hanford occupational medicine doctor, also agreed to pay a $1,500 fine and complete courses in ethics, boundaries, recordkeeping and opioid prescribing.
In June or July 2011, he met a 28-year-old woman at Night Moves Gentlemen’s Club in Umatilla, according to Department of Health Medical Quality Assurance Commission documents. She told him she needed help for chronic low back pain but had no money or insurance.
In August, he met her at a Denny’s restaurant and examined her in the parking lot, before prescribing hydrocodone, according to the Tri-City Herald. The woman had asked for Percocet, but Angerbauer told her he could not prescribe that because it would require him to sign a prescription, according to the agreement reached by Angerbauer and the commission.
Later, Angerbauer met and treated her at his home, near a tattoo shop where she also worked and at a gas station. The Herald also reported that he was accused of violating appropriate physician-patient boundaries by giving her $20, paying for her to spend one night in a hotel, offering to pay for her books so she could study for a high school equivalency test and giving her food from his home when he moved out of state.
The full story can be found on the Tri-City Herald website.
