SAN FRANCISCO (BCN/KRON) — A man who allegedly posed as a nurse practitioner and worked in a Tenderloin medical clinic for four months has been arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license and identity theft, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced on Thursday.
Chad Brian Litz, 39, allegedly volunteered for four months as a nurse practitioner at San Francisco City Impact, a free medical and dental clinic serving residents of the Tenderloin, using a forged certificate from
the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners as well as other fraudulent materials.
During that time Litz, who does not appear to have ever been licensed to practice as a nurse or doctor, allegedly treated at least 28 patients with little supervision and prescribed controlled substances to two of them, according to court documents.
The fraud was discovered by clinic volunteers and reported to the state Department of Consumer Affairs.
Litz was arrested on March 10 in Tampa, Florida, as he disembarked from a cruise ship.
He was arraigned and pleaded not guilty Thursday to four felony counts of practicing medicine without a license and one felony count of identity theft.
He remains in custody, with bail set at $65,000, and is scheduled to return to court on April 11 for a preliminary hearing.
Anyone who thinks they might have been treated by Litz at San Francisco City Impact at 230 Jones St. is asked to contact Investigator Andrea Todd at the Department of Consumer Affairs at (510) 888-7072.
“We trust our medical professionals with our health and well-being,” said District Attorney George Gascón. “Those illegally practicing medicine can cause serious harm and undermine the trust patients put in these professionals.”
A mother and her 12-year-old daughter are both disturbed by the news. The mother, who did not want to be identified, said Litz treated her child last November.
They say Litz gave her a pill when she had a stomachache without informing a parent.
“He didn’t tell me what it was, his back was turned behind,” said the daughter, whose mom did not what her name revealed. “All he said was, ‘Here take this and you’ll feel better,’ and I’m thinking in my head, should I? Like, I don’t know. This is the first time, that was one-half of myself saying that, but the other half was saying, ‘Oh wait. I should trust him because he is a USF medical student.'”
Here is a statement from SF City Impact:
Chad Litz was a volunteer (not an employee) in December 2013 as we were just getting started as a clinic and were pursuing a license. Shortly after he started volunteering, USF nursing school notified us that he had a criminal background and we appropriately responded and alerted authorities. We were contacted by the department of consumers affairs and went through a thorough investigation, reviewing all documentation and patients he saw. We did everything to ensure that our patients were safe and that the care did not cause any harmful outcomes.
As part of credentialing, we collect resume IDs and any relevant licenses. He produced said licenses and an NPI number, which turned out to be fraudulent. Our clinic’s scope of practice was very limited at the time because of it’s infancy. Nonetheless, all patients and visits were reported to the Department of consumer affairs during thorough investigation.