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Looking Into a Doctor's Malpractice History How can I check if my doctor has been sued for malpractice?
Question:
When I have to choose a new doctor, can I check whether he or she has been sued for malpractice? How would I go about doing that? What should I look for?
Answer:
In many states, you can find a malpractice history on your doctor, but the real issue is how you choose to interpret that information.
Malpractice is an ugly word for both patients and doctors. For patients, it can mean that a doctor botched a routine surgery, resulting in years of chronic pain. For doctors, it is the fear during every operation that a force beyond their control will result in a negative outcome, prompting an ugly lawsuit and damaging their medical reputation.
With consumers' ability to access public records via the Internet, a new controversy has arisen about whether patients should be able to view a doctor's malpractice and disciplinary records.
In 1996, Massachusetts became the first state to make doctors' malpractice records and other disciplinary information available to consumers. From the start, this program was extremely popular. According to an article published last year in Medical Economics magazine, more than 6,000 consumers called during the first two weeks, and a total of 16,000 profiles were sent out by fax or mail. In early 1997, the Massachusetts program went on the Internet, enabling consumers to quickly view malpractice, criminal conviction or board disciplinary information on more than 27,000 Massachusetts doctors.
According to Health Care Choices, a New York-based nonprofit consumer advocacy group, California and Florida have also made doctor malpractice records available over the Internet, and Rhode Island is in the process of making malpractice data Internet ready. Washington, Idaho and Oregon provide malpractice information to consumers, but not over the Internet. Several other states are also considering legislation to open up doctor malpractice records to consumers.
Not Necessarily Incompetent
When accessing doctor malpractice records, understand what such claims might mean. You may think that a record of malpractice means that a doctor has been sued and been found guilty of performing a sloppy operation. In fact, the information provided says only that a malpractice action was filed against the doctor and that the doctor's insurance company settled the claim to avoid an expensive lawsuit. It is not an admission of wrongdoing.
Massachusetts provides a long list of explanations to consumers about why there may be a malpractice claim against a doctor. The list informs patients that certain specialties are more likely to face litigation; that some doctors work mostly with high-risk patients, which puts them in greater danger of a malpractice suit; and that claims are filed for reasons other than doctor incompetence.
It is unlikely, however, that everyone will read the fine print -- people may just focus on the fact that a doctor has paid out money for a malpractice claim. According to the Florida Department of Health, a consumer can easily access a list of doctors in Florida indicating the amounts of the malpractice claims against them -- information that may appear to be damaging.
Although the movement to make physician profiles widely available to consumers has mostly focused on doctor malpractice records, consumers can access other information about physicians over the Internet as well. In the states mentioned above, new laws require state agencies to collect information about doctors from a variety of sources and make it available over the Internet. Typically, this includes where the doctor was educated and trained, his or her board certifications, whether any hospital or medical board disciplinary actions were filed against them and if they have a criminal record.
Read Between the Lines
In the Internet age, consumers expect and increasingly receive access to information that only a few years ago would have been difficult if not impossible to obtain. It is important to remember, however, that information is not knowledge. In the case of a doctor profile, where one can be bombarded by facts -- educational dates; unfamiliar medical words pertaining to board certification; a variety of disciplinary, criminal and malpractice information -- how can a consumer figure out if a doctor is competent?
It depends on how well their profile is prepared by the states and whether they have developed a uniform quality rating system, similar to that used in HMOs and hospitals. Otherwise, consumers may be making decisions about their doctors with no more insight than if they simply picked a name out of their local Yellow Pages.
1999 WebMD. All rights reserved.
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