WASHINGTON, June 6, 2002 -- The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen is making its Questionable Doctors database available on the Internet. The first installment covers 6,700 physicians in 12 states who have been disciplined from 1992 through 2001.
Consumers can find out from their state medical board whether their physician has had his or her license revoked or has been disciplined by that state. However, state records don't normally include disciplinary actions taken by a federal agency or by states where a doctor may have practiced previously.
Offenses covered in Public Citizen's database include incompetence, misprescribing drugs, sexual misconduct, criminal convictions, ethical lapses and other offenses. Most of the doctors were not required to stop practicing, even temporarily.
The www.questionabledoctors.org site now has records from California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont. Public Citizen said more states would be added throughout the year.
Public Citizen has been publishing national and regional editions of the Questionable Doctors database in book form for more than a decade but the information has not been available on the Web until now. Consumers will be able to search the list of disciplined doctors for free. For $10, they can view and print detailed disciplinary reports on up to 10 physicians within a three-month period in any of the states listed.
Examples of doctors who were disciplined but are currently allowed to continue practicing include:
- A California doctor who was convicted of battery after attacking his billing clerk and office partner;
- A New Hampshire doctor who delayed a Caesarean section, causing a baby to be born in a vegetative state and eventually die;
- A Massachusetts doctor who allowed a drug company representative to be present at a patient examination, telling the patient the observer was a "preceptor";
- An Indiana doctor who engaged in sexual misconduct with students ranging in age from 14 to 17; and,
- An Illinois doctor who twice perforated a uterus during two separate elective abortions.
"For many of the most serious offenses by doctors, the disciplinary actions imposed by state medical boards have been dangerously lenient," said Sidney Wolfe, M.D., director of Public Citizens Health Research Group. "Choosing a doctor is one of the most critical decisions a consumer will make, but unfortunately, finding good, reliable information about physicians has been exceedingly difficult. We believe that to make the right choices about health care, consumers need to know whether their doctor has been disciplined for any offense and the details of the offense."
The majority of doctors disciplined for the five most serious offenses sexual abuse or sexual misconduct; substandard care, incompetence or negligence; criminal conviction; misprescribing or overprescribing drugs; and substance abuse were not required to stop practicing even temporarily. Therefore it is likely they are still practicing and that their patients are unaware of their offenses.
"All too often, state medical boards are more concerned about protecting the reputations of doctors than doing their job, which is to protect unsuspecting patients from doctors who may be incompetent or negligent," Wolfe said.
Public Citizen also has published a ranking of state medical boards, based on the number of serious disciplinary actions (license revocations, surrenders, suspensions and probation/restrictions) per 1,000 doctors in each state. In 2001, nationally there were 3.36 serious actions taken for every 1,000 physicians. Click here to view the state rankings on the web.
"Nationwide, an extremely tiny fraction of doctors face disciplinary action," Wolfe said. "States need to start doing a better job of protecting the public."
Public Citizen recommends that states promptly make public all of their board disciplinary actions, malpractice payouts and hospital disciplinary actions; strengthen medical practice statutes; restructure their medical boards to sever any links with state medical societies; and increase funding and staffing for medical boards.
