Dr. Brian Hyatt, the former chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board, was indicted on federal charges alleging he drugged and abducted patients at a psychiatric facility in Springdale, Arkansas, according to an indictment released Monday. The indictment alleges that Hyatt sought additional money from health care reimbursements by keeping patients at the facility through medication and force.
Federal prosecutors said an Arkansas grand jury indicted Hyatt in early March. The charges allege that he gave numerous patients strong, mind-altering sedatives with the goal of keeping them at the psychiatric facility without medical justification. The indictment also alleges that Hyatt used controlled substances to subdue patients in a way prosecutors describe as kidnapping.
The indictment charges Hyatt with two federal counts: kidnapping and distribution of the controlled substances that he allegedly used to subdue patients. Prosecutors said the alleged crimes took place at the Northwest Medical Center Behavioral Health Unit in Springdale. The indictment said Hyatt’s medical company was contracted to provide psychiatric services there between 2018 and 2022.
In addition to Hyatt, the indictment named seven other people connected to the behavioral health unit. Federal prosecutors said the group included mental health care workers, administrative employees and nurses who worked for Hyatt, and that they were indicted in early March as well. Some of the workers were charged, prosecutors said, for allegedly failing to intervene to avoid being fired.
Prosecutors said some employees were accused of neglecting to document patients’ actual conditions in medical records, instead using generic notes to obscure patients’ conditions and conceal a lack of treatment. Other employees were accused of directly participating in the alleged misconduct, according to the indictment.
The indictment further alleged that at least one employee broke a patient’s collarbone while physically restraining her to force her to accept what prosecutors said were unnecessary treatments. Federal prosecutors also said other employees allegedly used threats, coercion and intimidation to force patients to accept unnecessary medical treatments, and they used physical abuse to prevent alleged victims from reporting.
If convicted, Hyatt and the other charged defendants face the penalties described in federal court. The indictment said the maximum sentence for those charged includes life in prison, up to five years of supervised release, and fines up to $250,000.
On Monday night, there was no attorney listed for Hyatt or for the seven employees charged alongside him, and the Arkansas State Medical Board did not respond to an emailed request for comment, according to the report.