The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure Restricts Bowling Green Cardiologist Dr. Fred Gott From Prescribing Controlled Substances, As He “Departed From Or Failed To Conform To Acceptable And Prevailing Medical Practices And That [He] Demonstrated Gross Negligence, Gross Ignorance And/Or Gross Incompetence In His Practice Of Medicine”! OUCH!!

Doctor faces Rx restrictions

Board says Gott 'decided to enter into field of pain management' via practice

The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure issued an emergency order Thursday restricting Bowling Green cardiologist Dr. C. Fred Gott from prescribing controlled substances.

A board consultant reviewed Gott’s patient charts and found that he “departed from or failed to conform to acceptable and prevailing medical practices and that the licensee demonstrated gross negligence, gross ignorance and/or gross incompetence in his practice of medicine,” according to the Findings of Fact in the written order filed in Frankfort.

About 25 state, federal and local law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant on Gott’s office in February. Gott was not present during the search and has not been charged with any crime. The federal search warrant is a sealed document. During the search, law enforcement officers carried out computer hard drives and boxes of papers.

“Our criminal investigation is proceeding, and we anticipate a conclusion in the near future,” Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force Director Tommy Loving said.

The search warrant was the result of a joint investigation by the drug task force, the Kentucky State Police, the Kentucky attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Control Division, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Drug Diversion Section and the Kentucky inspector general’s Drug Enforcement and Professional Practices Branch, according to a news release in February from the task force.

The joint investigation began after the Warren County Coroner’s Office reported that several of Gott’s patients had suffered overdose deaths attributed to prescription drugs, according to the Findings of Fact in the medical board’s order.

The medical board consultant who reviewed Gott’s patient files noted that “Gott is a licensed cardiologist ... who has now decided to enter into the field of pain management and to provide services as a pain management physician. I do not see any type of formal training or any training remotely associated with his ability to want to all of a sudden practice pain management.”

After review of the charts, the consultant also noted that Gott’s diagnoses “seem unsubstantiated” in many cases.

“There is a failure of using diagnostic testing such as MRI scans, and there is also a failure in obtaining appropriate consultations with regards to pain related topics or pain related disorders. His treatment plans consist of prescribing methadone, and very limited use of other meds,” the consultant wrote.

“It appears that when patients enter into this practice, the only scope of care given is opioid treatment. The only reason patients are there, is to obtain medications,” according to the consultant’s opinion in the Findings of Fact.

Gott graduated from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1978. He obtained his medical license Sept. 18, 1980, according to KBML online records.

Gott has privileges at TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital, but is on the courtesy staff, which means he admits a limited number of patients to the facility, Greenview marketing director Alan Palmer said.

Gott had medical privileges in February at The Medical Center, but did not perform cardiac catheterization at that facility, said Doris Thomas, vice president of marketing and development for Commonwealth Health Corp., the parent company of The Medical Center, in an interview shortly after the search warrant was executed. A Medical Center spokeswoman was unable to obtain Gott’s current status at that facility by press time today.