Are Medical Licensing Boards Negligent in their Their Regulation of Doctors?
A new Public Citizen report indicates that state medical boards have failed to discipline 55 percent of the nation's doctors who either lost their clinical privileges or had them restricted by the hospitals where they worked, based on a new analysis of data from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB).

May 12, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- A new Public Citizen report indicates that state medical boards have failed to discipline 55 percent of the nation's doctors who either lost their clinical privileges or had them restricted by the hospitals where they worked, based on a new analysis of data from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB).

That means 5,887 doctors escaped any licensing action by the state. The study examined the NPDB's Public Use File from its inception in 1990 to 2009.

The analysis of 10,672 physicians listed in the NPDB for having clinical privileges revoked or restricted by hospitals, shows just 45 percent nationwide have also had one or more licensing actions taken by state medical boards.

Where Does New Jersey Rate?

Unfortunately, New Jersey's Medical Board was also below 50 percent, with only 183 physicians out of 320 being subject to any disciplinary action. The 57.19 percent rate places New Jersey in the bottom performing states.

Sadly, New Jersey is not alone. Public Citizen is sending its report to the 33 states with the worst performance. The reports contain "highlights" of particularly troubling cases:
- A New Jersey physician had two clinical privilege reports, one in 1994,(denial of privileges) and one in 1999 (suspension of privileges); both were for indefinite penalty length. The 1999 action was for incompetence. This practitioner also had seven medical malpractice reports totaling $1.3 million from 1996 to 2007. The reasons for the malpractice payouts included: three cases of improper performance, one case of improper technique and a case of wrong diagnosis. Two patients had significant permanent injuries.
- In Illinois, a doctor had clinical privileges permanently revoked in 1999 and accumulated 10 medical malpractice reports between 1992 and 2006 totaling $7 million for, among other things, improperly managing cases, failing to diagnose and failing to identify fetal distress. One patient suffered a major permanent injury while another became a quadriplegic due to a brain injury. Yet Illinois did not discipline the doctor.
- From New York, a physician had a clinical privilege report in 2008. The practitioner voluntarily surrendered privileges while under investigation and received an indefinite suspension of privileges. The physician had 15 medical malpractice reports totaling $6.2 million for the period 1996 -2008. The malpractice claims included three cases of improper performance and four cases of improper technique; there was one patient death, one case of significant permanent injury and one case of major temporary injury.

"Either state medical boards are receiving this disturbing information from hospitals but not acting upon it, or much less likely, they are not receiving the information at all," said Wolfe, who supervised the analysis of the National Practitioner Data Base and state disciplinary records. "Something is broken and needs to be fixed."

If you have been subject to any type of medical malpractice, speak with an attorney experienced with these types of cases. They can review your facts and advise you of possible legal actions you may take.

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