Rhode Island
GoLocalProv | News | “Amazon-Bestselling” Rhode Island Doctor Reprimanded for Inappropriate Relationship With Patient
Thursday, October 12, 2023
PHOTO: Achina Stein/Promotional
A Rhode Island doctor and author of an “Amazon international bestseller” has been reprimanded by the Rhode Island Department of Health.
The reason, according to RIDOH, is for “failing to maintain professionally appropriate boundaries during the doctor-patient relationship,” as required under state law — for sharing a photo with a patient while away, scheduling appointments at restaurants and recreational sites, and more.
Achina Stein has produced dozens and dozens of YouTube videos with other “health experts.”
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On Wednesday, the Medical Licensure and Discipline Board signed a consent order reprimanding Stein, who, at the time of the complaint filing, was employed at Functional Mind, LLC, in East Providence, which is now located on Wickenden Street in Providence.
Stein is a “D.O.” — a “Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine.”
A sample of the YouTube Videos
“Dr. Stein has been practicing functional medicine since 2012. She published her book in February 2020 which has become an Amazon international bestseller,” states Functional Mind on its website of Stein’s book, “What If It’s Not Depression?”
“She has been interviewed on multiple podcasts worldwide including the Broken Brain podcast,” it continues, just below how to “book your free discovery call with Dr. Stein.”
Now, after an investigation, Stein is being ordered to pay administrative fees in the amount of $1,000 and at her own expense “shall complete and successfully pass a course such as the “Center for Personalized Education for Physician (CPEP), Problem-Based Ethics and Boundaries Course (PROBE)…and shall also complete and successfully pass a medical records course.”
She is also required to “comply with the recommendations provided to her in writing at the two courses she is required to take hereunder.”
SOURCE: RIDOH
About Complaint
According to the consent order, Stein provided psychiatric treatments to a “complex psychiatric patient” over the course of 8 years beginning in 2013.
That patient was the complainant who led to the reprimand.
According to RIDOH, “[Stein] failed to maintain appropriate boundaries with the Complainant, as evidenced by extensive text messaging with the patient; providing medical advice including changes in medication and dosage by text; communications, including emojis; sharing a photograph with patient while away; providing career guidance to the patient; occasionally treating the patient as a colleague; providing personal information regarding Respondent’s own family; scheduling appointments to be held outside an office setting, including at restaurants and recreational sites without documenting a therapeutic purpose for the venue, and a failure to provide off-hours coverage when patient was hospitalized.”
Stein, according to RIDOH, told the Investigative Committee that as a result of the complainant’s physical disabilities, including being deaf, and their complex psychiatric history, that it was “appropriate to utilize treatment regiments that are outside the normal scope of practice.”
The Investigative Committee ultimately concluded, however, that Stein’s interactions with the patient were not “professionally appropriate” — and in violation of state law.
Calls and emails to Stein at Functional Mind were not returned at the time of publication.
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