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Keith Plott

Union General Hospital-owned clinic in North Carolina searched

By Charles Duncan

A nurse practitioner with a Union General Hospital-owned clinic in Clay County, NC has voluntarily surrendered his DEA registration number to federal agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the North Georgia News and Towns County Herald have learned.

Nurse Practitioner Keith Plott, a former educator in Union and Towns counties, basically surrendered his authority to write medical prescriptions after authorities from two states and the federal DEA Diversion Task Force searched the facility last week, the newspapers have learned.

Investigators with Georgia and North Carolina along with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Diversion Task Force searched Hayesville Family Practice in Clay County, NC on Wednesday, April 20, the newspapers have learned.

The investigation, part of a joint venture between law enforcement agencies in Georgia and North Carolina probing prescription drug fraud involving former Union General Hospital CEO Mike Gowder, Blairsville physicians James Heaton and David Gowder, led investigators to Hayesville Family Practice, which is owned and operated by Union General Hospital in Union County.

The Gowder brothers and Dr. Heaton are no longer associated with Union General Hospital.

On April 20th, agents with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. DEA Drug Diversion Task Force, along with investigators and deputies from Union County, in Georgia, as well as Clay and Cherokee County North Carolina Sheriff's Office, executed a search warrant at Hayesville Family Practice.  

Plott was named in the search warrant and he was interviewed at the facility as the search warrant was executed, according to sources close to the investigation.

Agents informed the newspapers that a search warrant affidavit executed to search Hayesville Family Practice indicates the investigation of the facility stems from concerns over prescriptions issued to persons by Plott. 

Patient records, along with other files and records identified as being potential evidence, were seized from the facility, sources said.

Sources close to the investigation say a review of the findings of the search warrant by prosecutors with North Carolina District 30, which includes Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Macon, Swain, Haywood, and Jackson counties, will determine the possibility of criminal charges.

 

   

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