SLO County nurse called herself ‘Dr. Sarah.’ Now her supervising physician has been fined
A physician must pay a $25,000 fine for not properly supervising an Arroyo Grande nurse practitioner who called herself “Dr. Sarah,” the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Dr. Anika Moore said in court documents she was unaware nurse practitioner Sarah Erny opened an independent medical office while under her supervision in 2018.
Moore was living in Massachusetts at the time, practicing obstetrics and gynecology. She said she “was led to believe Erny was working in a clinical setting with other physicians,” the news release said.
But the reality was Erny was calling herself a doctor, seeing 8 to 10 patients a day and writing more than 1,600 prescriptions total for more than 250 patients, court documents allege. Nurse practitioners are allowed to prescribe these medications, but it needs to be clear to their patients they are not a licensed doctor.
Erny was fined nearly $20,000 for her medical license deception.
“As a supervising physician, Dr. Moore accepted a professional commitment to collaborate and supervise Nurse Practitioner Erny,” San Luis Obispo County Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth said in the release. “Our office seeks to ensure that every physician that consents to supervise a nurse will comply with California requirements and take great care to routinely evaluate whether the terms of the agreement are being met and to evaluate the nurse’s performance to ensure best patient care.”
Moore did not admit any wrongdoing, according to the release, but agreed to pay the $25,000 fine.
Doctor did not supervise nurse, DA alleges
Erny earned a doctorate in nursing practice from Vanderbilt University and began promoting herself as Dr. Sarah Erny shortly after acquiring her Ph.D, the complaint alleges.
Erny, who earned a doctorate in nurse practitioning from Vanderbilt University, said in previous court documents that her supervising doctor — now identified as Moore — told her to “own her degree.”
That detail was not addressed in the complaint against Moore.
California law requires supervising physicians and the nurses they oversee to enter into a written collaboration agreement that defines their specific roles and duties in treating patients.
The agreement specifies whether medications can be prescribed and must list each medication that is classified as a controlled substance. The supervising physician is required to routinely evaluate the standardized procedures and to evaluate the nurse’s performance.
According to the lawsuit, Moore only “skimmed the contents” before signing the agreement between her and Erny. Moore “spent little time investigating and evaluating the circumstances in which Ms. Erny would be providing medical services under the collaboration agreement,” court docments said.
The lawsuit alleged Moore did not develop protocols within the agreement before or during her supervision of Erny.
That agreement included a protocol for Erny’s prescription of medications to patients but did not identify which substances Erny could prescribe — a violation of California law.
Moore was unaware Erny was prescribing medication — including the Schedule III medication testosterone — to male and female patients, the lawsuit said.
The doctor also did not review any physical medical records during her time supervising Erny.
The supervisory relationship was ended in March 2021.
