Two state complaints filed against a Fort Lauderdale doctor. He says racism is involved
The Florida Department of Health has accused Fort Lauderdale Dr. Jeffrey Morgan of being a pill slinger and doing a Brazilian Butt Lift surgery at a Tampa clinic that wasn’t registered for that surgery.
Morgan accused the Florida Department of Health of “making wildly fraudulent accusations” and of “hate bias” designed to end his career.
The Department of Health’s accusations are in two administrative complaints, one filed on Oct. 28, 2013, and amended Oct. 28, 2021, and one filed May 2. Morgan’s accusations were in an email to the Miami Herald that asked him for a response to the administrative complaints.
Administrative complaints start the process toward potential discipline by the State of Florida Board of Medicine.
Morgan’s online Department of Health profile says he became licensed in Florida on Dec. 9, 2008. His Florida profile lists licenses in three other states: South Carolina’s online records say he’s been licensed since March 19, 2003; Louisiana, but online records say that license has been inactive since April 30, 2003; and Michigan, but online records say Morgan’s license lapsed Jan. 31, 2016.
First administrative complaint
This complaint said that on Nov. 18, 2011, a Department of Health investigator showed up at Morgan’s office for a dispensing practitioner inspection.
“During the inspection, records were reviewed that required a more thorough evaluation concerning the levels of controlled substances prescribed by [Morgan],” the complaint said. “Additionally, the investigator found business cards that indicated [Morgan{ is board certified in orthopaedics.”
Morgan’s online profile shows no board certifications.
The complaint also said Morgan prescribed “scheduled drugs to his patients as the primary means of controlling their pain” and prescribed “a combination of an opiate with other drugs to treat his patients.”
What the complaint called the “standard of care for patients experiencing certain types of pain” uses non-scheduled drugs, exercise and physical therapy. Also, a patient can be referred to a specialist who can use “interventional therapies such as injections, nerve blocks or spinal cord stimulation.”
But Morgan, the complaint said, failed to meet the standard of care by “prescribing narcotics and failing to pursue definitive treatment” with five patients. Each section breaking down a patient’s treatment ends by saying Morgan’s records didn’t justify using opioids such as Roxicodone and oxycodone (the generic version of Roxicodone) either in the volume he did or without being combined with other treatments.
“The FDOH has a history of knowingly making wildly fraudulent accusations; but in the matter of No. 18997 its actions rose to the level of racial discrimination evidenced in numerous ways,” Morgan said, “but in its most sinister form as what can be described as no less than “Hate Bias” and non-violent “Hate crime” (libel) having the intent, and largely succeeding, at ruining a then-young African American male physician/surgeon’s reputation and promising career.”
The amended complaint filed last October removed references to Roxicodone, left oxycodone and was more specific about the office’s name (Morgan Orthopaedics Sports & Spine, PC) of Morgan’s office and the address (1620 W. Oakland Park Blvd.).
Second administrative complaint
This complaint, filed May 2, says Morgan went to Tampa’s Smart Shape Body on Jan. 24, 2020, for the liposuction procedure known as a Brazilian butt lift.
In a Brazilian butt lift or BBL, fat is taken from other parts of the body by liposuction and inserted into the buttocks.
The complaint says Morgan placed patient “CL” under general anesthesia, then removed 2,000 cubic centimeters of supernatant fat.
The complaint says Smart Shape Body wasn’t registered with the Department for any liposuction involving more than 1,000 cubic centimeters of supernatant fat, which would be a Level II office surgery, or a surgery involving general anesthesia, a Level III office surgery.
Smart Shape Body’s online license profile of Smart Shape Body says its office surgery registration license wasn’t issued until Dec. 18, 2020, and is now “closed.” The license is also under the name “JL Medical Management Group,” which state corporation records list as being at 5352 N. Habana Ave. in Tampa at the time of Morgan’s surgery, the same address as on Smart Shape’s current website and that comes up when searching Smart Shape in Google.
Morgan said this complaint “has no honest or credible basis in its “targeting” of me; I will add that I am not aware of the case file information on which the complaint appears to be founded. I have formally asked for it and I have a right to have this information produced to me.”
Morgan is accused of only doing a surgery at Smart Shape Body, but he said, “I don’t own a surgical center (and, never have here specifically in Florida), nor have I knowingly ever been a practice’s Medical Director or Designated Physician as it relates to office surgery services registration requirements with the FDOH.”
This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 10:10 AM.
