Women accuse Arkansas psychiatrist of mistreatment as nearly 60 other ex-patients have filed a lawsuit against him
More than 50 of his former patients have filed separate lawsuits claiming Hyatt held them against their will.
Dr. Brian Hyatt, the former Arkansas State Medical Board chairman and former head of the behavioral health unit at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale, is now facing two counts of Medicaid fraud.
Three women who say they are former patients of Hyatt are sharing their experiences publicly for the first time.
This comes as nearly 60 of his former patients have filed separate lawsuits claiming Hyatt held them against their will to collect more money from the government.
Before the Rogers Police Department arrested Hyatt in October, he had been under investigation for months. An arrest affidavit says Hyatt claimed to treat patients he never saw and billed the state under the highest possible Medicaid code.
According to court documents, investigators found Hyatt’s Medicaid claims were so high that they skewed the averages on certain codes for the entire Medicaid program in Arkansas.
Along with these Medicaid fraud charges, a total of 58 separate lawsuits from former patients have been filed (as of Dec. 20) detailing alleged abuse under Hyatt’s care in the behavioral health unit at Northwest Medical Center Springdale.
Hyatt stepped down from his position on the state medical board after the Medicaid fraud investigation began. In May 2023, a $1.1 million settlement was reached with Northwest and the Arkansas Attorney General's office.
Hyatt's contract with Northwest was terminated in May 2022. Up until that time he also owned a private psychiatry practice in Rogers. In November 2023, the practice suddenly shuttered, reportedly leaving his patients without access to their prescriptions.
Chapter 1 "We were there to be contained, is what it felt like."
Trella Elam said she was one of Hyatt’s patients there, and claims made in those lawsuits line up with her experience during her stay at the unit in 2019.
“It wasn't like we were there to get mental help. We were there to be contained, is what it felt like. To be contained and controlled,” Elam said.
Elam, along with Brooke Stewart and Madi Dana, are not part of any pending litigation against Hyatt, but say after years of silence, they are ready to share their stories.
“This is so widespread, and it affects everybody involved. It really does. I saw a lot of things and the people I was in there with saw a lot of things. The friends I have who have been there saw a lot of things and were treated horribly," Dana said.
Elam and Stewart said they were admitted to Northwest Health in January 2019 and were roommates in the behavioral unit.
“My first 10 minutes in there I knew I was in danger,” Stewart said.
Stewart said she was sedated during a large part of her stay.
“When I would wake up in those first like three or four days, they would just give me a shot to go back to sleep,” Stewart said.
None of the three women feel they received the care they needed from Hyatt.
“I felt like I got more therapy from the other people, the other patients in the hospital than I did anybody else there,” Dana said.
"Barely anything was said."
All three women said they feel as if they were simply there to fill beds and take medicine.
“You were there to take medication whether you like it or not and just wait until they feel like you can leave,” Dana said.
The arrest affidavit said Hyatt claimed to treat patients he never actually saw. Video surveillance of the behavioral unit watched by investigators with the Attorney General’s Office said they observed Hyatt making his rounds by going down the hallway and only looking into each room, without entering any of them.
That same investigation said the surveillance video refuted what Hyatt allegedly would document on the patient's paperwork of the care he'd provided.
Dana said she experienced this firsthand during her stay.
“You are essentially waiting for him to do his rounds, so that you could figure out if you're going home that day or not or how long he wants you to stay, or talk about your medication. You're supposed to be talking about how you're feeling,” Dana said.
“Rarely did you ever get even one of those out of that. He might ask you how you are doing, move on to the next person. Barely anything was said.”
According to the affidavit, other providers claimed Hyatt told staff members not to tell patients who he was and to mark out his name on patients’ wristbands with Sharpie.
All three women said this lines up with their experience.
“They said he was on vacation. They said that someone else was filling in for him,” Elam said.
“They kept telling me he was on vacation, he was on vacation, you'll be released when he gets back,” Stewart said.
“It was 12 days, and then he finally the doctor came in, and I was like, ‘Well, that's the same doctor that I’ve been seeing.’ He goes, ‘I’m Dr. Hyatt, and you're going home,’ and I’m like, ‘but you're the same doctor I’ve been seeing, so that doesn't make any sense.’”
"I can't help but wonder how many people could still be with us."
The lawsuits claim Dr. Hyatt kept patients at Northwest as long as possible to get more Medicaid funding.
In May, Dr. Hyatt’s legal team told 5NEWS’ content partners at Arkansas Business, “Medicaid billing is a complicated, and not always consistently administered, system that does not make it easy for providers.”
Dr. Hyatt was formally charged with two counts of Medicaid fraud on Nov. 29, 2023.
Northwest Medical Center told 5NEWS Dr. Hyatt has not been associated with the hospital since May 2022. The hospital said in a statement to 5NEWS, “Last spring, we undertook a number of actions to ensure our patients’ safety, including hiring new providers responsible for the clinical care of our behavioral health patients in early May 2022.”
Dana said she stayed at Northwest again in July 2023, and it was a much different experience.
“It seemed like they genuinely cared about what people had to say at that point. I felt like things were running more smoothly … way different,” Dana said.
All three women said they’re still healing from their experience under Dr. Hyatt’s care and they wanted to share their stories in support of other patients doing the same.
“I can't help but wonder how many people could still be with us … how many families are hurting … That's another reason why I felt the need to speak up, because there are people that can't. They really need to have their voices heard, and that's why we have to do this for them,” Elam said.
5NEWS reached out to Dr. Hyatt’s attorneys for comment regarding the claims of Dana, Elam, and Stewart but he and his team have not responded.