According to Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, the rate of discipline for doctors was down in 2008 compared to its peak in 2004. The rate dropped from 3.72 per 1000 doctors to2.92 per 1000. Public Citizen found that even when doctors are convicted of drug related offenses and insurance fraud they often did not receive serious disciplinary actions from their state medical boards. Public Citizen had previously reported that 5% of the nation’s doctors committed ½ of the overall medical malpractice.
Sidney Wolfe M..D., Citizen’s acting president, stated ” the overall national downward trend of serious disciplinary actions against physicians is troubling because it indicates many states are not living up to their obligations to protect patients from bad doctors”.
As a medical malpractice attorney, I think it is imperative the states medical board take serious action against the handful of doctors who are committing the majority of the medical malpractice. We all need to take action and call our state medical boards and demand they ensure we have safe and competent medical doctors. Doctors make life and death decisions everyday and should be held to a high standard of care.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
