2009年美国医生处罚事件比2008年上升6%

medtech

Disciplinary actions against docs up 6% in 2009: reportBy Joe Carlson
Posted: April 1, 2010 - 8:45 am ET

The Federation of State Medical Boards reports a sharp increase in disciplinary actions taken against physicians, as the number of such actions jumped by 6% in 2009 compared with the 1% increase seen the year before.

The annual report summarizing disciplinary actions against physicians by 70 medical and osteopathic boards across the country found a total of 5,721 actions taken against doctors in 2009, an increase of 342 from the prior year. In 2008, the number of such actions increased by 60.
The federation of medical boards discourages side-by-side comparisons of the number of disciplinary actions from states, because different boards have widely varying levels of staffing, resources, physicians monitored, and standards of review. However, the federation does compute a statistic called the Composite Action Index, which is a weighted average of disciplinary actions using state demographics and the severity of the actions being taken.

Looking at percentage changes in the index, the New Hampshire and South Dakota medical boards saw the highest relative increases in their indexes, with both states more than doubling their disciplinary actions to 16 from seven the year before. The only other state whose index more than doubled was Nebraska, where the medical board handed out 69 actions in 2009 compared to 32 the year before.

In contrast, the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine and the South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners saw the largest percentage decreases in their index rankings, with those boards handing out 38 and 36 fewer disciplinary actions, respectively.

Although the federation discourages side-by-side comparisons, its reports are typically followed by an analysis by the Public Citizen Health Research Group, whose analysis comparing the states in the federation data often lead to changes in boards' funding levels and disciplinary actions given.