California Psychiatrist Gregory L. Gorski Surrenders Medical License for Failure to Monitor Controlled Substance Prescriptions, Patient Harm...

July 8, 2022

On December 30, 2021, the Medical Board of California ordered that the license of psychiatrist Gregory Gorski be surrendered.

Gorski was subject to discipline for failing to apply for electronic access to information in the CURES system (California Utilization, Review and Evaluation System) by the required deadline and for failing to utilize the system to periodically monitor his patients before and while prescribing controlled substances to them.

According to the California Office of Attorney General, CURES is a database of Schedule II, III and IV controlled substance prescriptions dispensed in California which serves the public health, regulatory oversight agencies, and law enforcement. CURES is committed to the reduction of prescription drug abuse and diversion without affecting legitimate medical practice or patient care. In sum, patients who are prescribed controlled substances will be tracked in a database.

Gorski admitted that he never applied for access to the CURES system and therefore did not access the CURES database during the time he treated his patients. Thus he would not have known if patients were also receiving prescriptions for controlled substances from other providers.

He also committed repeated negligent acts in the care and treatment of patients by failing to adequately document medical histories for his patients. (His documentation conveyed very little of the types of information about his patients normally found in the records of psychiatrists.) Further, he prescribed stimulant medications without documenting his monitoring of the patient’s heart rate, blood pressure or weight. 

Lastly, Gorski demonstrated incompetence in his care and treatment of patients by failing to possess adequate knowledge about the components of a mental status examination or the criteria for generalized anxiety disorder. The Board found that patient harm occurred as a result of his unprofessional conduct.

Source: Decision in the Matter of the Accusation Against Gregory L. Gorski, M.D., Physician's & Surgeon's Certificate No. G 15977, Case No. 800-2018-044578, Medical Board of California, Dec. 23, 2021.