putting things in perspective about medical nazi proffessionals According to research, doctors who are banned or disciplined by hospitals often keep clean licenses. Roughly 6,000 doctors had their clinical privileges taken away or restricted for misconduct involving patient care from 2001 to 2011. More than 3,000 of these doctors, however, were never penalized with a fine, or license restriction, revocation or suspension by a state medical board. Studies also showed that even the most severe cases of misconduct go unpunished. Almost 250 doctors sanctioned by health care institutions were cited to be an immediate threat to safety and health, yet none of their licenses were taken away or restricted. Similarly, approximately 900 doctors were cited for negligence, substandard care, malpractice or negligence, yet they continued to practice without licensure action. Of the estimated 100,000 doctors who made payments to resolve malpractice claims between 2001 and 2011, nearly 800 were responsible for 10% of all the claims paid, with their total payouts averaging $5.2 million per doctor. However, fewer than one in five doctors faced any form of licensure action by state medical boards. These numbers raised red flags for numerous experts in physician oversight, particularly David Swankin, head of the Citizen Advocacy Center, which works to make state medical boards operate more effectively. Medical boards rely on mandatory reports, Swankin states, and are then supposed to act on them. Not all doctors who pay multiple malpractice claims or who lose clinical privileges necessarily have to lose their licenses. In some cases, insurers or doctors may settle among themselves without admitting fault in order to avoid a costly litigation. Concerns on the accountability of medical boards date back to 1986, the year that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General reported that the boards imposed very few disciplinary actions for physician misconduct. Many follow-up studies suggested improvements to be made, but these reviews ended in the early 1990s after the Justice Department declared that the Inspector General no longer had jurisdiction over state boards not regulated or funded by the federal government. These concerns on the state medical boards resurfaced once more in 2011, when the Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group, viewed the same National Practitioner Data Bank records investigated by the USA Today. The group reached the same conclusion: That medical boards were not properly acting on reports after being made aware of them. Unfortunately, little has changed since this study was published.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:41:07 +0000
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