State board suspends LV doctor

Monday, April 5, 2004 | 11:30 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Board of Medical Examiners has suspended the license of Dr. Karen Giarrusso of Las Vegas because she stopped submitting her urine for drug and alcohol testing.

The board has scheduled an emergency meeting May 11 to consider evidence and give Giarrusso a chance to respond. Giarrusso could not be reached for comment.

The board said based on the evidence so far, Giarrusso "poses a threat to the health and safety of the patients she sees and treats, as well as the public." She is barred from practicing medicine at least until the board meeting.

Giarrusso had received a DUI conviction in 2002 while in California.

Her application for a license to practice medicine in Nevada was granted in July 2003 on the condition she enter a diversion program that treats those with drug or alcohol problems.

She enrolled in the Nevada Health Professionals Assistance Foundation program and agreed to abstain from alcohol or drugs in May 2003. The foundation said in November it determined she was not participating adequately and that she had provided only two urine samples during the six months she was under the contract.

The foundation usually conducts unannounced tests once a month, Tony Clark, executive director of the Medical Examiners Board, said.

In January, Giarrusso asked the foundation to certify she had completed the program and asked for the medical examiners board to remove the conditional status.

The foundation denied the request and recommended she stay in the program and supply an immediate urine sample.

Giarrusso refused. Neither she nor her attorney, John Lukens of Las Vegas, could be reached for comment.

The investigative committee of the Medical Examiners Board in March ordered her to provide a urine sample and a meeting was set up for March 25. But Giarrusso never showed up, according to state investigators.

Giarrusso most recently has been with Anesthesiology Consultants Inc. in Las Vegas.