Reliability of sanctions by state medical boards

The States are vested with the legal authority to grant physicians licenses to practice medicine. They also have the power and authority to restrict or revoke the same licenses and privileges to practice medicine within the state.

In most States, the same body that grants licenses to qualified doctors or physicians also disciplines physicians who it has determined unfit to continue to practice medicine.

Medical boards in all states have the power to revoke or suspend a doctor’s license. Other disciplinary actions include probation, limitations, fines, reprimands, letters of censure, letters of concern, and collecting costs of proceedings.

The general grounds for disciplinary actions are unprofessional conduct or professional incompetence. The medical practice act of each State mandates specific grounds, such as incorrect drug prescription and substance abuse, for disciplining physicians.

Medical licensure is intended to grant the privilege of practicing medicine to individuals who are of good moral character and are competent to provide safe care to the public (70 Corpus Juris Sec. 19).

However, this does not ensure continuing competence — an important thing to note considering that medicine is a constantly evolving and changing science.

The main task of State medical boards in all states is to “protect the public against unfit practitioners” .

In the past State medical boards have been very conservative when it came to censuring errant doctors. Lately, however, there has been a surge in disciplinary actions.

Nonetheless, the percentage of practicing physicians disciplined is significantly less than the 5 to 15 percent of physicians that certain authorities believe to be professionally incompetent to practice medicine.

Although the effectiveness of State medical boards in taking disciplinary actions is an important quality concern, the more specific intent of this chapter is to evaluate whether the disciplinary actions taken by State medical boards are good indicators of the quality of care.

Disciplinary actions taken by State medical boards are worth examining as a measure of quality, because they have face validity for average consumers.

An average consumer would expect that limiting or withdrawing a physician’s license to practice medicine indicates that the physician is professionally incompetent and would be concerned about using the physician for health care.