Doctors’ group wants complaints off website

Monday, March 15, 2004 | 9:41 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The president of the Clark County Medical Society wants the state to stop making malpractice complaints against doctors public until they are proven.

Dr. Edwin Kingsley said he was concerned that the state Board of Medical Examiners puts complaints filed against physicians on its website, even though some of the allegations are never proven.

But the state board does not intend to stop the practice.

One investigative committee of the board, headed by Donald Baepler, said it had considered 70 complaints brought against doctors. He told the board Friday that 13 of the cases will result in formal complaints.

The complaints, once they are drafted by lawyers, will appear on the board's website.

Baepler, of Las Vegas, said the 13 complaints were not serious enough to revoke the doctors' licenses.

Dr. Joel Lubritz of Las Vegas, who is head of the second investigating committee of the board, said it considered 129 cases and found cause to file only two complaints against physicians.

Kingsley also told the board that it should not investigate every malpractice civil suit filed against doctors. He said two-thirds of them are dropped.

But Tony Clark, assistant executive director of the board, said it intends to review every civil suit involving malpractice against a doctor.

Clark said the board was following the advice of an audit of the agency that it establish a priority in investigating complaints against doctors. The more serious allegation will be examined first, he said.

The audit, performed by the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, found that the board did not inform those who filed complaints of how the case was progressing.