The former Vice President of Robert Wood Johnson Hamilton’s medical staff has agreed to an indefinite suspension of his medical license with the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners. RWJ Hamilton announced the doctor’s immediate resignation from their staff on December 31, 2015.

The surgeon, Dr. Vijay Vaswani, signed the consent form from the State Board, which admitted to his long history with substance abuse, in particular cocaine. In addition, Dr. Vaswani admitted to prescribing Percocet to three people who were not his patients and did not have a medical use for this drug. In the consent order, these allegations of his inappropriate behavior represented “a palpable demonstration of an imminent danger to the public.”

Dr. Vaswani had a history of drug abuse prior to obtaining his medical license, and in obtaining his New Jersey license in 2001 he agreed to participate anonymously in the Board of Medical Examiners alternate resolution program through a professional assistance program. In 2011, he completed his treatment and was allowed to withdraw from the program.

However, on December 22, 2015, Dr. Vaswani was interviewed by investigators in New Jersey’s Division of Consumer Affairs as well as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for undisclosed reasons.

Besides a suspension of his medical license, the surgeon also agreed to surrender his federal DEA drug registration.