Washoe center wants doctors’ backgrounds checked by state

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 9:42 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The largest hospital in Northern Nevada wants the state to conduct criminal background investigations of all doctors.

Representatives of Washoe Medical Center are to ask the state Board of Medical Examiners today at a Reno meeting to start checking the criminal history of doctors when they apply for a license or renew a permit.

The examiners board already conducts a variety of inquiries of doctors before they are licensed. When doctors arrive from another state, their professional background in that state is forwarded to the board.

The board also subscribes to national associations that conduct background checks, but there is no single criminal examination.

Betsy Vandeman, manager of medical staff services at the hospital, said a "rigorous" examination is done of doctors' credentials, but no criminal check is done.

The Nevada application for a doctor's license asks whether the physician has ever been convicted, but a person with a shady past could lie, she said.

Vandeman said she does not know of any cases so far in which a doctor with a felony or gross misdemeanor conviction has ever received a license to practice in Nevada.

"We haven't had any problems in Reno or Northern Nevada that I know of," she said.

The request follows a national movement to start criminal checks on doctors before they get a license or renew a permit.

Seven states, including California, already conduct such investigations and several more are considering it, Vandeman said.

The Washoe Medical Center trustees want the state to take the responsibility rather than each hospital.

This should be a statewide program, Vandeman said. Rural hospitals may not have the financial ability to undertake such background investigations.

In the larger counties, a physician may practice at several hospitals. So each hospital would have to conduct its own investigation, Vandeman said.

No action is scheduled to be taken at this meeting.