How
to Check Your Doctor's Credentials
It
is truly amazing how few people actually take the time
to check their doctors’ credentials. Most patients
choose their physicians based on either a simple word-of-mouth
referral or by which doctor is geographically desirable.
Selecting a plumber is often a more arduous task than
selecting a pediatrician. Perhaps the problem lies not
in the desire to obtain information about our doctors,
but rather in the ability to do so. In the past, checking
doctors’ experience and credentials could be time-consuming
and difficult. Times have changed. With the advent of
the internet, a few minutes banging on your keyboard
could mean the difference between selecting a competent
physician or an incompetent physician. Isn’t your
health worth it?
There are three key factors to determine when investigating
your doctor. First, what are her credentials? Is she
“board certified” in a particular area? Where
did she attend school? Does she have any teaching appointments?
Has she published in a particular area? And what is
her level of experience? Second, it is important to
determine whether your doctor has been disciplined,
meaning whether the state licensing board has taken
any action against her. Third, it is useful to know
whether a physician has been sued for malpractice. Simply
because a doctor has been sued does not necessarily
mean that the doctor is a bad doctor. In fact, a physician
who has been sued may in fact become more prudent as
a result.
Below are some links and descriptions to learn more
about your doctor. Note that the descriptions may come
from the web pages themselves.
Maryland/DC/Virginia
Maryland
http://www.docboard.org/md/default.htm
The Maryland Board of Physician Quality Assurance (the
"Board") is an agency of the state with the
authority to license physicians and other health care
providers such as physician assistants, cardiac rescue
technicians, EMT-paramedics, medical radiation technologists,
nuclear medical technologists, respiratory care practitioners,
and psychiatrists assistants. In addition to establishing
qualifications for licensure, the Board is responsible
for investigating complaints against licensees and for
taking action against the license of those who fail
to maintain Maryland's high standards of medical care
delivery or who break the laws governing licensure.
District of Columbia
http://www.dchealth.com/hra/welcome.htm
http://dchealth.dc.gov/services/administration_offices/hra/pl/bod.shtm
The District of Columbia provides some information about
its physicians on this site. The web page, however,
is not as detailed or user-friendly as those set up
by some of the other jurisdictions.
Virginia
http://www.dhp.state.va.us
Virginia provides information about discipline of its
physicians, as well as other educational material.
National Cites
http://www.questionabledoctors.org
Questionable Doctors 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,
mis-prescribing drugs, sexual misconduct, criminal convictions,
ethical lapses and other offenses.
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2645.html
The American Medical Association provides research information
for physicians and provides links to state disciplinary
boards. Additionally, the American Medical Association's
AMA
Physician Select provides limited information on
the training and certification status of all of the
more than 650,000 medical and osteopathic physicians
currently licensed in the United States. It does not
list disciplinary actions. Searches can only be done
one state at a time. This service is free of charge.
http://www.tese.com/css
This site provides specific information about a physician’s
credentials.
HealthGrades.com
maintains a searchable database of over 650,000 physicians.
Searching, which is free of charge, requires the physician's
last name and state of practice. The resultant information
includes whether the doctor has been sanctioned within
the past few years; however, no details are provided.
Searches can also be conducted for "leading"
physicians, hospitals, and health plans, as defined
by criteria posted on the site. Rating as a "leading
physician" is said to require (a) a minimum of
two years of practice, (b) board certification, (c)
no Medicare or medical board sanctions within the previous
three years, and (d) affiliation with a hospital that
HealthGrade.com rates as "three stars" or
higher. Another excellent research tool is Searchpointe,
whose sources include the AMA, the FDA, the DEA, and
HHS.
Data Banks
The
National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), http://www.npdb-hipdb.com/npdb.html,
which began operating in 1990, is intended to hinder
the movement of "problem practitioners" from
one facility or state to another. Licensing boards are
required to report all actions that revoke, suspend,
or restrict a license for reasons related to the practitioner's
professional competence or conduct. Professional societies
must report all professional review actions that adversely
affect the membership of a physician or dentist. Hospital
administrators must report disciplinary actions that
negatively affect a doctor's clinical privileges for
more than 30 days and must query the Data Bank when
appointing or re-appointing medical and dental staff.
Malpractice insurance carriers are required to report
all settlements against physicians, dentists, and other
licensed health-care providers. The information is available
to state licensing boards; hospitals and other health
care entities; professional societies; certain federal
agencies; and plaintiffs (or their attorneys) in a malpractice
suit.
The
Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB),
http://www.npdb-hipdb.com, which became operational
in 1999, is intended to combat fraud and abuse in health
insurance and health-care delivery. It collects information
about licensure and certification actions, criminal
convictions, exclusions from federal and state health-care
programs, civil judgments (other than malpractice actions)
related to health care, and other adjudicated actions
or decisions. The information can be accessed by health
plans and federal and state agencies.
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