Editorial: Openness would be welcome

Tuesday, July 11, 2000 | 9:25 a.m.

Much of the debate involving medical care in the past few years has revolved around efforts to stem abuses by health insurers. Certainly passage of a patient's bill of rights should be one of Congress' top priorities, but it also is important that state medical licensing boards and the public, too, have more access to information about physician misconduct.

As the Sun's Stacy J. Willis reported Sunday, members of the public who want to find out whether a doctor has had a malpractice lawsuit filed against him likely will run into roadblocks. It's not as if the data don't exist: The National Practitioner Data Bank is a wonderful resource -- and includes information on malpractice lawsuits against physicians -- but it only is accessible to hospitals and health insurers. The American Medical Association has been able to block the release of these records to the public.

One of the reasons cited by doctors to prevent access is that the public doesn't have the kind of expert training to separate frivolous complaints from legitimate lawsuits. Admittedly, some of the lawsuits filed have no merit. But the alternative, not having a central location for the public to find such valuable information about these complaints, is much worse. For that matter, even the state Board of Medical Examiners currently isn't being forwarded these lawsuits from District Court or hospitals, despite the fact that state law says the disciplinary board should be receiving them.

When the Nevada Legislature meets again in 2001 it should adopt the board's recommendation that there be a fine or other sanction if District Court or hospitals fail to report malpractice complaints. In addition, the public should only have to turn to a single place, the state Board of Medical Examiners, to find these records. Openness, not secrecy, is what patients deserve.