Medical Boards Take Fewer Actions Against Physicians
A new study finds that serious disciplinary actions taken against physicians by state medical boards in 2006 decreased by 10% nationwide, the Virginian-Pilot reports. The study, released Wednesday by Public Citizen, concludes that the boards require additional resources and legislative oversight (Young, Virginian-Pilot, 6/7).
For the report, Public Citizen analyzed data from the Federation of State Medical Boards for 2004 through 2006 and ranked states based on the number of serious disciplinary actions taken by medical boards per 1,000 physicians. Serious disciplinary actions included medical license revocations, surrenders, suspensions and restrictions.
According to the report, serious disciplinary actions taken against physicians by state medical boards nationwide decreased to 2,916 in 2006 from 3,255 in 2005.
The Alaska medical board took the highest rate of serious disciplinary actions at 7.3 per 1,000 physicians, followed by the boards in Kentucky, Wyoming, Ohio and Oklahoma, the report found. The Mississippi medical board took the lowest rate of serious disciplinary actions at 1.41 per 1,000 physicians, followed by the boards in South Carolina, Minnesota, South Dakota and Nevada, according to the report (Dorschner, Miami Herald, 6/7).
Nationwide, state medical boards took an average of 3.18 serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 physicians, the report found (Lerner, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/6).
"There is considerable evidence that most boards are under-disciplining physicians," the report said (Miami Herald, 6/7).