Metro

In just 3 years, this B’klyn hosp doc has charged taxpayers for $1M in overtime

THAT’S SOME CRAZY CASH: Psychiatrist Quazi Rahman has made as much as $515,700 in overtime in a year on staff at Kings County Hospital. (
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This is nuts.

A city shrink at Kings County Hospital, who consistently puts in 80 hours a week or more, has now accumulated more than $1 million in overtime over three years.

Records obtained through the Freedom of Information Law show that staff psychiatrist Dr. Quazi Rahman boosted his $173,503 base salary to $480,856 last year by adding 2,226 hours of OT to the 2,120 hours he was scheduled to work.

That meant Rahman was on duty an average of 83 hours a week for 52 weeks in 2011.

It was basically the same story in 2010, when the 56-year-old child-behavior specialist pulled in $264,497 in overtime to spike his total salary to $438,000.

But compared to the feat he pulled in 2009, that was a stroll in the park.

As The Post first reported, Rahman earned an extraordinary $689,203 that year by logging an amazing 3,820 extra hours — including one stretch of 96 straight hours that, even with nap breaks, seems to test the limits of human endurance.

At the time, officials at the Health and Hospitals Corp. said a shortage of emergency-room psychiatrists during a crisis at Kings County resulted in huge overtime tabs for many staff psychiatrists who pitched in to cover open slots.

Kings County is the only one of HHC’s 11 acute-care hospitals that has physicians directly on its payroll. Most doctors at HHC are employed by affiliates, such as NYU, that have contracts with the city.

More doctors were added at Kings County in 2010 and the OT bill came down.

But it has settled to a point where 18 physicians with base salaries as low as $164,610 made enough overtime last year to top the $300,000 mark.

Rahman led the pack. Not far behind was Osmond Quiah, who earned a total of $445,678; Abdul Mohit, who made $435,270; and Guy Etienne, at $419,846.

The physicians are also allowed to maintain separate private practices, although Rahman doesn’t.

HHC is defending the setup, despite the thousands of hours of built-in overtime it produces, as the only way to run the emergency psychiatric service at Kings County.

“HHC is committed to offering competitive salaries and benefits to physicians — particularly those who specialize in hard-to-recruit emergency-room psychiatry — in order to attract highly-qualified candidates who can deliver the quality care our patients deserve,” said spokesman Ana Marengo.

Other sources confirm that emergency-room shrinks are indeed in short supply.

But how can any doctor routinely working 80 or more hours a week provide quality care?