Death pays as shrinks rake in OT

A small group of psychiatrists at Kings County Hospi tal piled up astonishing amounts of overtime after a shocking case of fatal neglect in 2008 -- captured on videotape and seen worldwide on the Internet -- had authorities scrambling to upgrade services under pressure from a federal court.

Records show that seven doctors earned at least twice their base salaries of about $200,000 after being pressed into OT duty in 2009.

One physician, Quazi Rahman, pulled in $681,441. Three others topped the $500,000 mark.

Officials at the Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs Kings County, defended the spending as unavoidable and described the high-earning psychiatrists as heroes who put in enormous hours "out of loyalty" to the institution at a time of crisis.

"The hospital was committed to right the problems that led to the Department of Justice/Hirschfeld lawsuit," said HHC spokeswoman Ana Marengo.

"As part of that commitment, everything was done to ensure optimal staffing including the recruitment of qualified professional staff to help implement the major patient improvements they have achieved."

The New York Civil Liberties Union sued Kings County in federal court in 2007, alleging that its psychiatric emergency room was a "chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger."

A year later, living proof of those charges surfaced in surveillance video that showed hospital staffers ignoring 49-year-old Esmin Green as she rolled off a waiting-room chair, landing face-down on the floor in convulsions. After waiting nearly 24 hours for treatment, she died.

Marengo said the huge overtime payments came at a time when the hospital had difficulty recruiting psychiatrists.

The average salary for the 600 doctors employed by Kings County is $192,000, Marengo noted.

In defending the OT windfall, she said the hardworking shrinks put in so many hours that each was the equivalent of "two to three full-time people."

Once the crisis was contained, Kings County was able to bring in extra psychiatrists in 2010.

david.seifman@nypost.com