The Daily Gazette

December 31, 2012 Monday
Schenectady/Albany; Final Edition

Psychiatrist placed on 2-year probation

BYLINE: STEVEN COOK; Gazette Reporter

SECTION: B: LOCAL; Pg. B2

LENGTH: 306 words

An Albany psychiatrist accepted a two-year stayed suspension of his license earlier this month from a state board over what his attorney called a documentation issue.
Gregory Lavigne, a psychiatrist practicing in Albany, had been accused of both gross negligence, a lower-level negligence and failure to maintain records, all connected with three separate patients.
In an agreement filed earlier in December with the state Board for Professional Medical Conduct, Lavigne admitted to the lower-level negligence regarding a single patient and failure to maintain an adequate record. The agreement satisfied the other allegations against him.
In return, Lavigne was given a two-year license suspension, but the suspension itself was stayed pending a two-year probationary period, essentially changing the penalty to probation. Among the probation rules is that he must practice only when monitored by a licensed physician.
The allegations against Lavigne were that he failed to perform exams and/or failed to document the exams or assessments. His attorney, Dennis First, said Friday that failure was entirely with paperwork, not treatment.
“It really was a documentation issue and documentation only, not a quality-of-care issue,” First said.
State officials began looking into Lavigne in 2009, First said, adding that his record has been impeccable since then.
Regarding the patient for which he admitted the lower-level negligence, Lavigne treated the woman from 2005 to 2008, but failed to perform “and/or failed to document” evaluations or “adequate medical indication.”
Lavigne also faces similar allegations related to a patient he treated from 1996 to 2010 and another he treated from 2005 to 2011.
Lavigne has been licensed to practice in New York since 1981.