Board Revokes License of Psychiatrist Craig Tolleson; Patient Died

March 6, 2019

On January 11, 2019, the Arizona Medical Board revoked the license of Flagstaff psychiatrist Craig W. Tolleson.

The Board began investigating Dr. Tolleson in June 2015, based on a notification that he’d been convicted of an extreme DUI in 2009 which he’d never reported to the Board, in violation of statute. In his response to the Board, he admitted to having crashed his car in 2008 while returning from the market and that after the crash, he retrieved a bottle of wine from his groceries and “consumed it in an effort to alleviate injuries he suffered from the crash….”

The Board had opened an earlier complaint against Dr. Tolleson in August 2014, regarding an allegation that he’d inappropriately prescribed medication to a patient, resulting in the patient’s death due to multiple drug toxicity. During the investigation, the Board discovered adequacy issues with several of Dr. Tolleson’s patients’ records. In September 2015, the Board requested records for five particular patients. Though he provided prescription records within a few weeks, by February 2016 he had failed to provide treatment records for four of the patients.

The Board found that he wrote patient prescriptions during periods when he’d reported to the Board that he was injured, unable to work or travel, or be interviewed by the Board.

In July 2016, the Board restricted his practice pending the completion of a competency evaluation. He never obtained the evaluation and the Board found that he’d continued to practice while on restriction.

The Board moved to allow Dr. Tolleson to surrender his license in lieu of revocation. He appealed. The matter went to an administrative hearing during which it was proven that he’d failed to report his DUI conviction; failed to maintain adequate patient records in multiple cases; had deviated from the standard of care in his treatment of the patient who died of multiple drug toxicity; and had breached the restriction the Board had placed on his practice.

Source: Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Order (License Revocation) in the Matter of Craig W. Tolleson, M.D., License No. 36928, Arizona Medical Board, January 11, 2019.