Page 10 - Jan_Feb 2022 Newsletter.pub

Adventures with Adversity Series Navigating Adversity in Ethics and Licensing

Interview with Marvin Firestone, MD, JD
By Michael McGee, MD, DLFAPA
NCPS Member Resource Committee Member

Dr. McGee: Welcome, Dr. Firestone, it's good to have you here with us today.

Dr. Firestone: Thank you, I'm happy to be here with you, Mike.

Dr. McGee: What are some stories that you think would be interesting for our members to hear about
struggling with ethical issues or medical boards? Any stories that come to mind that would be useful of
sharing?

Dr. Firestone: Yes, we had this one psychiatrist who participated in a real estate transaction with a patient
for instance, who he had been seeing for many years in a sort of psychoanalytic/psychotherapy modality,
and he was paying cash for his sessions, and because there was a downturn in the real estate market, he
ran out of liquidity and offered the psychiatrist an opportunity to partner with him on an apartment
complex that he gave the psychiatrist a good deal to do, and then essentially, the psychiatrist bought into
the partnership and, ultimately... I don't remember what exactly happened, but the patient in some ways
was abandoned by the psychiatrist and sued the psychiatrist for negligence in his care of him and for
abandonment.

This came before the Ethics Committee and the Ethics Community reviewed it and agreed that the
psychiatrist essentially had a boundary violation, should not have entered into that kind of relationship
with a patient. And as I recall, also the court found the psychiatrist to be negligent and abandoning the
patient and awarded the patient plaintiff some money. So that was one experience, and to some extent
boundary violations and boundary crossings are sometimes a problem.

Another boundary violation was a psychiatrist who was having difficulty in his marital relationship at the

time and fell in love with a patient and didn't have any sexual encounter with the patient but would meet
the patient from time to time to give her, I guess, a social visit as well as some emotional interaction,
holding hands, etcetera, at a park bench. And ultimately his wife found out about it and reported him to
the medical board.

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PSYCHIATRIC SOCIETY Page 10 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022