Nurse practitioner who treated the late actress Stevie Ryan stripped of California licenses

The nurse practitioner who handled actress Stevie Ryan — and engaged in a sexual relationship together with her months earlier than she killed herself in 2017 — has been stripped of his California licenses, the state’s Board of Registered Nursing stated final week.

The transfer, efficient Feb. 28, got here after the nurse, Gerald “Jay” Baltz, misplaced an administrative regulation continuing that targeted on his therapy of Ryan, identified for her pioneering YouTube movies and her VH1 sketch comedy present “Stevie TV.” The case had been initiated by the top of the nursing board, an company inside the state’s Division of Client Affairs. Baltz is difficult the choice in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket.

The formal accusation, introduced in opposition to Baltz in 2020, sought the suspension or revocation of his nursing licenses for alleged misconduct topic to self-discipline underneath the California Enterprise and Professions Code. The authorized submitting accused him of gross negligence, incompetence, unprofessional conduct and sexual misconduct.

A Occasions investigation, printed in April 2021, detailed Ryan’s rise in Hollywood, her entanglement with Baltz, and her demise at 33. Instructed of the nursing board’s resolution, Steve Ryan, the late actress’ father, stated, “I assume that’s excellent news.”

“It’s laborious to be ok with one thing that’s that life altering for each events,” he stated.

Within the accusation, Baltz was alleged to have engaged in an inappropriate, boundary-crossing relationship with Ryan whereas she was his affected person, after which a sexual relationship together with her whereas she was receiving therapy on the facility the place he labored. It additionally stated that Baltz allegedly issued Ryan prescriptions for about 10 medication used to deal with a wide range of circumstances — together with despair and bipolar dysfunction — with out offering “clear rationale for prescribed medicines.” He additionally allegedly failed to hunt supervision for her when she was suicidal, the accusation stated.

Following a listening to final fall, a decide from the state’s Workplace of Administrative Hearings issued a proposed resolution in November that ordered Baltz’s 4 state nursing licenses be revoked. The decide wrote that there was trigger to self-discipline Baltz for unprofessional conduct and gross negligence, however not for incompetence or sexual misconduct, partially as a result of Ryan was not his affected person on the time their relationship turned intimate. The Enterprise and Professions Code says that “any act of sexual abuse, misconduct, or relations” with a shopper is grounds for self-discipline, however doesn’t word this is applicable for former shoppers.

Ryan requested out Baltz throughout an April 5, 2017, go to, the proposed resolution stated. That day, Baltz terminated his nurse-patient relationship with Ryan and transferred her care to a different psychological well being supplier at Perception Selections, the ability the place he labored, the submitting stated. Baltz and Ryan dated briefly: They ended issues in late April by way of a textual content message chat, throughout which Baltz stated he hoped she would “by no means say something” about their romantic relationship, in line with the choice.

Three months later, Ryan took her personal life.

Baltz’s “breach {of professional} boundaries with a former affected person with identified psychological well being infirmities evinces a severe lapse in judgment,” the decide wrote within the proposed resolution.

On the listening to, Baltz defined that he felt “horrible” over his romantic relationship with Ryan, and blamed partaking in it on his alcohol abuse, in line with the choice. (He stated he has been sober since Might 2017.) Baltz defended the rationale of his prescribing exercise but in addition acknowledged that he had lied to a nursing board investigator throughout a 2019 interview wherein he was requested about his relationship with Ryan, saying that he did so as a result of he “felt responsible and afraid,” it stated.

The nursing board adopted the choice in January, however Baltz filed a petition for reconsideration Feb. 14. It argued, partially, that revoking Baltz’s licenses was “improper and punitive” on account of, amongst different elements, the decide having erroneously interpreted the regulation find that Baltz had dedicated unprofessional conduct by having a sexual relationship with Ryan after he stopped treating her. The petition was denied by the board Feb. 24.

Baltz, who left Perception Selections a month after Ryan’s demise and has extra just lately practiced at MelrosePsych within the Beverly Grove neighborhood, might be eligible to hunt the reinstatement of his licenses in three years, in line with the nursing board.

Through his attorneys, Baltz declined a number of interview requests. In an interview with The Occasions, certainly one of his legal professionals, Michael Khouri, stated that “for a few years, Gerald Baltz has been a extremely regarded nurse practitioner with a big affected person following who all say nothing however great issues concerning the man.”

Khouri downplayed among the allegations Baltz confronted, together with those who pertained to the consumption word he wrote when he started offering care to Ryan in 2015. The word allegedly “offered scant data” and “didn’t doc” parts of Ryan’s well being historical past, the accusation stated. “If each physician in California was disciplined as a result of their notes weren’t full, there could be no docs,” Khouri stated.

Baltz is a nurse practitioner — a registered nurse with further training, permitting him to prescribe drugs and supply diagnoses, amongst different actions. With such tasks, nurse practitioners, whose work in California requires doctor oversight, have a novel function within the healthcare system, a reality highlighted at Baltz’s listening to in October earlier than the executive regulation decide.

A serious space of disagreement on the listening to centered on Baltz’s actions when Ryan felt suicidal. California regulation obligates nurses who observe “irregular traits” in sufferers to provoke “acceptable reporting, or referral” to others within the medical subject.

The decide’s resolution quoted Baltz’s notes from his classes with Ryan, together with one from their ultimate go to that stated “she feels suicidal.” A nurse practitioner who served as an professional witness for the top of the nursing board stated that Baltz didn’t refer Ryan to the next stage of care. Baltz opted to refer Ryan to his supervising doctor for a specialised course of therapy, a transfer the witness described as substandard.

Baltz testified that Ryan “was not at inherent threat for suicide as a result of she endorsed a passive demise want for a number of years,” the choice stated. He additionally stated he believed he had referred the problem “to an acceptable stage of upper care” along with his supervising doctor. The decide famous, nevertheless, that there was no “indication that [Baltz] ever carried out any suicide threat evaluation” for Ryan, even after her criticism of feeling suicidal at their final session. Subsequently, the decide wrote, it was “questionable” how Baltz had concluded that therapy with the doctor was acceptable as a substitute of “a referral to a psychiatric hospital or emergency care.”

The decide famous that Baltz had submitted optimistic character reference letters and accomplished an academic coaching program on skilled boundaries. The choice additionally defined {that a} medical counselor who served as an professional witness for Baltz performed a “intercourse offender threat evaluation” of the nurse and located that he “just isn’t in danger for re-offending sexually.” Nonetheless, the decide wrote that Baltz had proven “little proof of rehabilitation,” saying that he had offered no “concrete plans to stop the reoccurrence of an analogous incident.”

Baltz “was grossly negligent in failing to offer care or to train atypical precaution in [Ryan’s] case, which he knew, or ought to have identified, might have jeopardized that affected person’s well being or life,” the decide stated.

Khouri, Baltz’s legal professional, stated that “society is worse off having his license revoked.”

“Is he remorseful for what occurred? After all he’s,” Khouri stated. “Can we respect the board’s energy to render judgments on skilled guidelines violations? After all we do. However we disagree with the penalty.”

To that finish, Baltz is continuous to pursue the matter: On Feb. 16, he filed a petition for writ of administrative mandate in L.A. County Superior Court docket. The submitting requested the courtroom to vacate the choice to revoke Baltz’s licenses, arguing that the nursing board misinterpreted and misapplied related statutes in its disciplining of him, amongst different contentions.

The nursing board declined to touch upon Baltz’s courtroom submitting, a spokesman stated, explaining that it doesn’t focus on lively litigation. The events will meet Might 26 to set a trial date.

Baltz just isn’t training in California as he awaits the end result of his courtroom problem: Phone calls to MelrosePsych
this week have been met by an automatic message that stated one other supplier is “masking for Dr. Baltz within the interim.” He additionally has nursing licenses in Colorado and Washington, however their standing is now in flux.

In keeping with an August submitting with Colorado’s Board of Nursing, Baltz voluntarily agreed to a “non-disciplinary interim cessation of apply settlement” whereas it investigated claims surrounding his conduct in California. Baltz denied he violated the Nurse Observe Act, the authorized doc stated.

In Washington, Baltz faces the revocation, restriction or suspension of his license after being accused of unprofessional conduct by the state’s Nursing Care High quality Assurance Fee, which, in a December assertion of fees, cited allegations he confronted right here.

Pals of Ryan together with Yuni Kim stated that they have been grateful for the nursing board’s resolution to revoke Baltz’s California licenses. He had continued to work throughout the board’s years-long scrutiny of his actions.

“I really feel aid — I additionally really feel like I need to cry, as a result of it ought to have by no means come to this,” stated Kim, who started sobbing. “The aid is mired with grief. She was my greatest good friend.”