PUBLIC CITIZEN: Doctors’ Histories Should Be Open To Public
A "nonprofit watchdog group" has concluded that the United States inadequately protects its citizens from medical misdeeds and that "state disciplinary boards are too lenient," the Los Angeles Times reports. In its annual report, titled "20,125 Questionable Doctors," Public Citizen lists 2,309 California physicians who were subject to 2,670 disciplinary actions. The state ranked 20th in serious disciplinary actions against doctors -- an improvement on the 1991 ranking of 37th. The group advocates "broader public disclosure and easier access to doctors' histories;" in California, the public has access to doctors' sanctions but not the details of the circumstances that led to them. The Times and Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, cite the case of an ob-gyn in Richmond who failed to act quickly enough when tests showed a fetus to be in trouble, and induced labor for no reason in a woman only 35 weeks pregnant as a prime example of what is wrong with the current disclosure system. The doctor, despite seven charges of "negligence and incompetence between 1983 and 1993," received only probation from the Medical Board of California. The doctor "knows what he's done. The board knows. Unfortunately, they don't bother telling the patients in California what [the doctor] has done," Wolfe said. Public Citizen also wants the National Practitioner Data Bank, a "federal repository of disciplinary actions and medical malpractice actions," to be made available to the public. A California Medical Board spokesperson said it intends to broaden its online doctor profiles to include formal charges against doctors and decisions by administrative-law judges (Allen, 8/14).
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