More scrutiny ahead for medical examiners board

Friday, Feb. 27, 2004 | 6:30 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

Feb. 28 - 29, 2004

As the medical malpractice issue lingers, two developments in Nevada bear watching.

One has to do with the often-criticized Nevada Board of Medical Examiners, which is charged with licensing and disciplining doctors.

Critics say the board has not been aggressive enough in disciplining doctors who have committed malpractice. The board also has been blamed for doing an unsatisfactory job communicating with the public.

Senate Bill 250, approved by Nevada lawmakers last year, was supposed to fix many of those perceived problems by compelling the board to improve the information provided on its Internet website and requiring doctors to report malpractice claims and settlements to the board.

While the board is in the process of updating its website so the public can be aware of doctors who have been disciplined, it has found other aspects of SB250 difficult to administer. Stephen Quinn, the board's deputy general counsel, said that with only five staff investigators, "We don't have the resources to find all the malpractice cases in the state and then take action."

For instance, in the case of a malpractice lawsuit that is pending, Quinn said that if he were a lawyer representing one of the parties, "I would be inclined to tell my client that we don't want to answer questions from the board because we're in litigation."

Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, co-sponsor of SB250 and one of the board's harshest critics, expressed confidence that consumers and doctors will see an improved board by summer when a new administration led by current deputy executive secretary Drennan Clark takes over.

But Townsend also suggested that leaders of the Senate and Assembly Judiciary committees meet before the 2005 legislative session to discuss ways to better define how the board should be dealing with doctors who commit malpractice. Up to now, the board's disciplinary actions have been criticized for being uneven, particularly in cases involving doctors who have had to pay multiple malpractice court judgments or settlements.

"People who have a problem practicing need to be identified quickly and dealt with," Townsend said. "The question is, if a doctor is identified as having a problem, how does the board deal with that and what actions should be taken to get those skills back up to speed?"

The other development is an ongoing effort by the Nevada Health Division to establish a registry that was authorized by Assembly Bill 1 -- which passed in the 2002 special legislative session to address medical malpractice -- to track medical errors and seek remedies without punishing health care providers.

The health division is meeting with hospital representatives to come up with an error reporting system that could become operational as early as this fall. Hospitals as well as obstetric, surgical and emergency medical care centers would be required to report errors to the registry. The reports would range from prescribing improper medication to accidental removal of a limb.

The problem is that the Nevada Legislature last year provided only enough money for raw numbers to be compiled, not enough to hire a qualified company to analyze the data and recommend improvements to the health care providers.

"The first couple of years it will be interesting to see how many cases are reported," Tina Perry, health resources analyst for the health division's Bureau of Health Planning and Statistics, said. "It's a step-by-step process that will take time."