Is NH State Medical Board Failing To Discipline Bad Doctors?

According to an analysis by Public Citizen of data from the National Practitioner Data Bank, state medical boards have failed to discipline 55 percent of the nation’s doctors who either lost their clinical privileges or had them restricted by the hospitals where they worked.

In New Hampshire, 54.9% of physicians with one or more clinical privileges suspended or limited received no licensure actions (that's 51 physicians with clinical privileges actions during the 19-year period studied, and 28 physicians with no licensure report). 

The analysis, according to Public Citizen, raises serious questions about whether state medical boards are responding adequately to hospital peer review determinations of substandard care or conduct, and, secondarily, whether state boards are getting copies of hospital reports to the NPDB. Given the value of hospital disciplinary reports, such reports must be received and properly utilized by medical boards to assure patient safety.

Public Citizen calls upon the NH State Medical board to work cooperatively with HRSA to regularly identify physicians in New Hampshire who have had clinical privilege reports submitted to the NPDB but have not had a state licensure action.

Go to Public Citizen for read the full analysis, its findings and conclusions: State Medical Boards Fail to Discipline Doctors with Hospital Actions Against Them