Hospital Privileges Revoked But Not His Medical License After 10 Reports Of Malpractice

In the report, 55 percent of doctors who had their hospital privileges either revoked or limited faced no other forms of discipline.

In Florida a doctor misdiagnosed a patient’s condition and then was reported 10 times for malpractice for performing an unnecessary procedure where he left a foreign object inside the patient’s body. After all of this happened, the doctor’s hospital privileges were revoked, permanently.

Two of the patients who were treated by this doctor passed away. And yet this is as far as actions against this doctor by the state of Florida have gone. The state of Florida has not taken the doctor’s medical license away, even though he has shown himself to be a liability and presents a significant risk to patients.

But this case is not unusual. A study that was published on ConsumerAffairs.com showed that the majority of all doctors who had their hospital privileges revoked were not subject to any further disciplinary actions from the state licensing boards. In fact, 55 percent of doctors who had their hospital privileges either revoked or limited faced no other forms of discipline.

Public Citizen, which is a nonprofit public interest group, reported that of the 11,000 doctors whose hospital privileges were revoked or limited between 1990 and 2009, 6,000 doctors faced no other disciplinary measures by state medical boards. Even though revoking or in some way limiting hospital privileges indicates that there is evidence which proves that the doctor may not be fit to practice medicine, these doctors still retain their licenses and are able to continue practicing.

Decisions about revoking hospital privileges are generally made by fellow doctors at the same health care facility as the doctor whose actions are under review.

This practice looks like it may be fairly standard across the board and that many states employ this approach when dealing with doctors who have committed some form of malpractice. In fact, this seemed to be the case with more than 50 percent of doctors whose hospital privileges have been curtailed. The review acknowledges the malpractice, agrees that the doctor has failed in some way and should no longer have the same rights he or she previously held, yet this is as far as it goes. Failing to take further action means that doctors are still able to treat patients, and this will undoubtedly put many patients at risk.

Several states which appear to have the worst/least effective records when it comes to medical board reviews include Florida, New Jersey, California, New York, and Texas. Public Citizen said that the research showed that state medical boards are either ignoring the important information being presented to them, or they are just not receiving that information.

Public Citizen has requested that the federal government begin investigating state medical boards once again, a practice that had been discontinued in 1993. Since then, there has been little oversight beyond doctors policing themselves by suspending hospital privileges of colleagues as they see fit.

St. Louis Medical Malpractice Lawyer

This is alarming when you realize that doctors can keep practicing without having their license revoked even if there have been multiple instances of malpractice where patients have been harmed. If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice, contact the Zevan and Davidson Law Firm at (314) 588-7200.

Our firm has a well-earned reputation for taking on and winning complicated medical malpractice cases.

photo credit: heipei