Medical Mistakes
Investigate Your Doctor
Medical Malpractice victims and patients cannot rely on the medical profession to police itself. Of the nation's 3/4 million doctors, only 2,000 bad doctors lose their license each year. 15 states -- Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont -- carry reports of all formal disciplinary actions. Massachusetts, Florida and California also list malpractice payments in their databases. States which have enacted a Physician Profile Law such as Massachusetts provide much more detailed Medical Malpractice, Hospital Discipline and Criminal Conviction information.
Look Up Physician
First,
obtain the current license status of the doctor to see if they are in
"good standing". Check with the state medical board of use
the sources below.
Second, find whether he/she has
had complaints filed against him/her.
Third, investigate the history of
disciplinary actions brought against the doctor such as suspensions,
fines or license revocations..
Fourth, research the doctor for
a criminal record.
Fifth, check whether he/she has
been sued for medical malpractice.
Sixth, see if he/she has lost lawsuits
or paid judgements for negligence.
Click
here for info in this site on how to look
up a California doctor; or look up a Massachusetts
doctor; look up a Florida
doctor ; or look up a New
York doctor.
To investigate your doctors' history of medical malpractice lawsuits, past disciplinary complaints and medical license revocations here using these links and resources:
Free services and resources:
Physician
Profile States - Several state sites accessed and summarized
such as California, Florida and Massachusetts.
DocFinder:
- (Association of State Medical Board Executive Directors) - health
professional licensing listings by state. A combined public
online physician database that has its direct source of data from state
government licensing boards and that also remains free
of charge to the public. Site contains the licensing background
and disciplinary information of physicians and other health care practitioners.
(for a limited number of participating states, this site provides a
database of physicians with credentials and disciplinary actions).
State
Medical Board Directories: A list of the 50 states
Medical Licensing boards. Some are very helpful, some give
a minimum of information. Check the license status of your Doctor here.
Some states offer info about prior medical malpractice suits against
your doctor. Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island,
Texas and Vermont -- carry reports of all formal disciplinary actions.
Massachusetts, Florida and California also report malpractice payments.
Hospital Lookup - Check on a Hospital's accreditation status.
Report Your Doctor: Use this site to report your doctor to state license authorities.
AMA Doctor Information: Check the current professional biography and license status only of your doctor here. Provides minimal information on each licensed physician in the United States. No medical malpractice lawsuit information is available here from this pro - doctors "Union" site.
Pay for services:
Bad
Doctors Listed - Pay search site.
An annual subscription of $10 entitles you to 10 doctor lookups. A
good resource to find doctors who have been
disciplined. Doctors sanctioned by state and federal government
are listed here! It contains information on doctors who have been
disciplined by state medical boards and federal agencies in the past
ten years. It contains data on disciplinary
actions taken for medical incompetence, misprescribing drugs, sexual
misconduct, criminal convictions, ethical lapses and other offenses.
It allows you to search for a doctor's name before you pay,
and includes information on multiple states. Currently there are 42
states available online: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado,
Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois,
Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,
Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington,
Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Wyoming.
Federation of State Medical Boards - DocInfo - fee based $9.95 per search databank of 115,000 physician disciplinary actions open to public.
Health Grades - Fee based $$ - research service to investigate doctors, hospitals and nursing homes.
KnowX.
com
- Fee based $$ - will search public records
on a doctor for $1 per database. However, if you want to view the
documents, there is an extra charge of $15. The database
covers lawsuits, judgments and licensing.
Other consumer resources:
The Center for Patient Advocacy: Center for Patient Advocacy's Resources Center, an online source for consumer information on health care.
Division of Quality Assurance - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Restricts the ability of incompetent physicians, dentists, and other health care practitioners to move from State to State without disclosure or discovery of previous medical malpractice payment and adverse action history. Unfortunately the site is prohibited by law from disclosing information on a specific practitioner, provider, or supplier to the public.
Doctors aren't disciplined enough - A free ride for bad doctors. Article about the lack of disciplinary actions taken by states against negligent doctors. Is it any coincidence that the states least likely to discipline doctors are among those with insurance crises?
Victims Justice Center, Inc - A resource for victims of bad medical practices.
Center for Medical Consumers - a consumer watch dog group protecting victims rights against bad doctors.
American Iatrogenic Association - The American Iatrogenic Association is devoted to the study and reporting of medical errors that lead to disease and death.
Use this form to report adverse drug reactions to the FDA
To get your medical records use our medical release form