Medical official blasts bad doc website

Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004 | 11:42 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Board of Medical Examiners' website will soon allow the public to obtain the names of doctors who have been disciplined by the board and the reasons for those actions.

But the president of the Clark County Medical Society says the public won't find some doctors on the site who should be listed and may find others on there who shouldn't be.

Dr. Ed Kingsley told the Legislative Commission on Wednesday the board has "not disciplined or sanctioned the very few physicians in the state" who are guilty of malpractice.

He took exception to an audit of the state board that said it was protecting the public from bad physicians.

The Federation of State Medical Boards conducted the audit of the state board, which has not yet reviewed the audit but is set to do so at its March 12-13 meeting in Reno.

The board will report back to the commission regarding the recommendations of the audit at the commission's next meeting.

In addition to challenging the audit's findings about the disciplining of doctors, Kingsley said there was no documentation in the audit to back up its statement that the state board was operating efficiently. He said the board was "awash" in a surplus of $3.7 million in 2002.

Last year, the board reduced the fees doctors pay from $600 to $400 every two years and said it will use part of the surplus to cover operational costs.

Kingsley also tempered his complaint about the board's failure to discipline some doctors for malpractice by cautioning that the board should not investigate every malpractice suit that is filed. He said more than 65 percent of the suits are resolved without any payments being made to a patient. He said the investigations should be launched only after there is a judgment in favor of the patient.

But Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, said that if the board did not follow up every complaint, malpractice by the physician could continue.

The audit also said that the board should be more open to the public. Keith Lee, an attorney representing the board, said it has taken steps to do that. He said revisions to the board's website should be completed this week and the new version of the site will include the names of all the doctors against whom the board has taken action for malpractice.

He also said people who have filed complaints against doctors would be contacted periodically to inform them of the progress of their cases.

Kingsley argued that there should not be any public information released on a doctor if there are mere allegations. The information he said should be only public when formal charges are brought.

Mary Linde, an attorney representing Dr. Bruce Wilkin of Ely, agreed. She said there should not be any allegations made public before the doctor has a chance to defend himself.

Wilkin, who has practiced 26 years, is charged with 19 counts of over-prescribing opiates to his patients. He told the commission, "I have done nothing wrong. I have nothing to hide."

The commission accepted the audit and will discuss the issue further at a later meeting.