List date(s) this work was published or aired.
February 5, 2012. Doctors who err escape penalties. February 6, 2012. Doctor discipline: State fails to offer full disclosure. February 6, 2012 Minimum standards mean less discipline. February 25, 2012 State panel: Public deserves more nformation about physician misconduct. May 5, 2012 New law will reveal more on doctors.
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Our investigation found that the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice, which regulates 20,000 physicians in the state, has been reluctant to punish to some doctors who have harmed patients, including more than 100 doctors who had been disciplined by other states and even doctors who have lost privileges to practice at Minnesota hospitals. The investigation also showed that Minnesota lags behind many states in disclosing information to the public, including data on malpractice judgments or settlements. It also doesn’t disclose whether doctors have been disciplined by regulators in other states or lost their privileges to work in hospitals and other facilities for surgical mistakes and other problems. Although the Minnesota board was a leader ten years ago when it posted disciplinary actions on its website , it has not followed the lead of other state boards which are increasingly giving the public more information about doctors.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Using state data disclosure laws, we obtained the board’s database of physicians and actions it has taken against doctors. We reviewed more than 1,500 board orders issued over the past decade and created the first ever public accounting of what doctors were disciplined for. Although the board releases number of actions, it does not release data on the underlying reason for the action, such as drug abuse, prescribing patterns and sexual abuse. The Minnesota board would not give us data on physician malpractice history and actions taken by other state boards. We cast a wide net for actions taken by other states, including requesting data from many state boards and obtaining actions from Nexis. We also analyzed the National Practitioner Data Bank to discover the number of physicians that had paid malpractice awards or had been disciplined by hospitals but had not been disciplined by the Minnesota board.
Explain types of human sources used.
To illustrate how ineffective the board can be, we found an attorney whose view of the board changed drastically after she filed a complaint against a doctor. Before her face was severely burned by a dermatologist as part of a simple cosmetic peel, she had actually defended dozens of doctors who were under board investigation. The board never even contacted her about her complaint, even though she had won a large malpractice judgment against the physician. It took months of persuasion to get her to go public with her story, but the effort paid off because she was able to provide a credible and critical example of board inaction.
Results:
The Minnesota Legislature acted quickly. A few months after the series ran, it passed a law, subsequently signed by Governor Dayton, saying that all health-related licensing boards must provide the public with information about criminal convictions and disciplinary actions by hospitals and by other states. It also required an audit of the Board’s practices.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
There were no corrections or clarifications run. The Board president did write a commentary piece defending the board’s role, but did not challenge the factual bases of the articles.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
It really helps to become familiar with the details of how the licensing board operates. Become familiar with the state medical practices act, read the board minutes, get training materials that the board provides to new board members about board functions and practices.