Los Angeles: State medical board officials say a Beverly Hills psychiatrist who treated Anna Nicole Smith has had her licence suspended for a criminal conviction involving the Playboy Playmate.
The March 30 decision by the Medical Board of California did not name any patients in the case against Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, but the filing listed the court number of the Smith case.
Eroshevich's licence was revoked, but the revocation was stayed. Instead, Eroshevich's license will be suspended for 90 days and she will be placed on five years of probation by the state licensing agency for wrongly prescribing opiates and other misconduct.
As terms of her probation, the board ordered Eroshevich to take classes on prescribing practices, ethics. She must also undergo psychiatric and medical evaluations. When she returns to practicing medicine, it will be under the supervision of a monitor approved by the state's licensing agency.
Eroshevich was with Smith when the former Playboy Playmate checked into the Florida hotel, where she later died of an accidental overdose. According to the medical examiner's office in Florida, Eroshevich authorized all 11 prescription medications in the Florida hotel room where Smith was found unresponsive shortly before her death on February 8, 2007.
More than 600 pills - including about 450 muscle relaxants - were missing from prescriptions that were no more than five weeks old. Eroshevich was initially convicted of two felonies in the drug trial involving the treatment of Smith.
One was later thrown out and the other was reduced to a misdemeanor. The misdemeanor is under appeal. According to the medical board filing, Eroshevich admitted misconduct in signing off on two workers' compensation and disability claims without actually examining the patients. The examinations were done by Eroshevich's colleague in 2004 and 2006.
