Feds Take Down Malpractice Database

For more than 15 years, researchers, reports and policymakers have been able to access an online database that anonymously tracks physicians’ records of malpractice, medical errors and medical discipline.  

But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) abruptly took the database down recently, without offering an explanation or saying when or if it will return. 

In a letter sent to the agency, Public Citizen says the database should be restored immediately. 

“We find it ironic that at a time in which other parts of HHS are becoming more transparent and even proposing to make detailed ratings of health care entities and providers available to the public, HRSA appears to be restricting access to information mandated by law to be made public,” said Dr. Michael Carome, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group.

The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) Public Use Data File has been the only comprehensive national source of reliable data on medical malpractice and other matters reported to the NPDB.

The public use file, which is updated quarterly, doesn’t contain physician names or even exact malpractice payment amounts, dates of payments or actions, practitioner ages or years of graduation. Rather, all these variables are provided only in broad ranges in the system.

Public Citizen and other organizations have used it to analyze trends in malpractice payments, to identify and report to HRSA potential compliance problems with reporting to the NPDB, and to identify state medical boards that failed to discipline physicians that had been disciplined by hospitals for serious infractions, such as being an “immediate threat” to health or safety of patients.