State receives poor rating for disciplining doctors

Monday, March 31, 2003 | 11:17 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A national citizens advocacy group says Nevada's Board of Medical Examiners had one of the nation's worst records in disciplining errant doctors in 2002.

Public Citizen, the organization founded by Ralph Nader in 1971, reported last week that based upon the number of serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 doctors, Nevada ranked 40th in the nation.

The national average was 3.56 serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 physicians, according to the study. Nevada's rate was 2.31 per 1,000 doctors.

The organization has been tracking the disciplining of doctors for more than 10 years and says that the numbers are good indicators of how serious medical boards are about protecting patients from bad doctors, Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group.

The executive director and president of Nevada's medical board disagreed with that claim, however, and said that different licensing requirements and differing laws in various states make it inappropriate to compare disciplinary rates.

State Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, called the ranking "pretty embarrassing." He said Nevada has the highest standard in the nation but, "if the state medical board is not holding doctors to that standard, shame on them."

Townsend, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor, which is revising some of the medical regulatory laws, said the public perception is that the board is protecting the doctors. He said he hears those comments from his colleagues and from the general public.

Larry Lessly, executive director of the state medical board, and board President Cheryl Hug-English said Nevada has fewer serious disciplinary actions because the state licenses only the most qualified physicians.

Public Citizen classified only license revocations, suspensions, probation or surrender of license as serious disciplinary actions. Nevada had only nine of those in 2002.

Lessly said the board took 20 disciplinary actions, but that included reprimands, license restrictions and requirements of additional training.