Disciplinary action against physicians: Who is likely to get disciplined?

doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2005.01.051

The American Journal of Medicine

Volume 118, Issue 7, July 2005, Pages 773-777

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2005.01.051 Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

We sought to determine the characteristics of disciplined physicians at-large and the risk of disciplinary action over time and to report the type and frequency of complaints and the nature of disciplinary actions against allopathic physicians in Oklahoma.

Methods

Descriptive statistics, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and Cox proportional hazards modeling of publicly available data on physicians licensed by the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision.

Results

Among 14 314 currently or previously licensed physicians, 396 (2.8%) had been disciplined. Using univariate proportional hazards analysis, men (P <0.04), non-whites (P < 0.001), non-board-certified physicians (P < 0.001), and those in family medicine (P < 0.001), psychiatry (P < 0.001), general practice (P < 0.001), obstetrics-gynecology (P < 0.03) and emergency medicine (P < 0.001) were found to be at greater risk of being disciplined than other medical specialty groups. Foreign medical graduates had a higher risk of disciplinary action compared to US medical graduates (P < 0.001), although this finding was not confirmed by multivariate analysis. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that the proportion of physicians disciplined increased with each successive 10-year interval since first licensure. Complaints against physicians originated most often from the general public (66%), other physicians (5%), and staff (4%), and the complaints most frequently involved issues related to quality of care (25%), medication/prescription violations (19%), incompetence (18%), and negligence (17%).

Conclusion

To improve physician behavior and reduce the need for disciplinary action, medical schools and residency training programs must continue to emphasize both patient care and medical professionalism as critical core competencies.

Section snippets

Methods

Publicly available data from the Oklahoma State Board since its inception contained 37 039 records on 14 314 physicians with information on date of birth, sex, race, medical school attended, name and location of the postgraduate training institution, onset and completion dates of postgraduate training, license status, state in which currently practicing, board certification, self-reported specialty, and date and nature of disciplinary action. Physicians reported nearly 100 first, second, third,

Results

Among 14 314 physicians licensed by the Board since its inception, 396 (2.8%) had been disciplined at least once for a total of 515 prejudicial actions. Among the 396 disciplined physicians in the dataset, 252 had 1 disciplinary event while the remainder had been disciplined on 2 or more occasions. Among those who had an active license in January 2001 but had been subjected to a disciplinary action, 98 physicians were on probation, 46 had a suspended license, and 22 had been reprimanded.

Discussion

Our results demonstrate that men, non-whites, and non-board-certified doctors are more frequently disciplined than women, whites, and board-certified physicians. It is not clear, however, whether these subsets of physicians are more often implicated in various kinds of offenses or they are more severely treated by the Board. Furthermore, while univariate analysis indicated that foreign medical graduates were at a higher risk of disciplinary action, this finding was not confirmed by multivariate

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Clinical research studyDisciplinary action against physicians: Who is likely to get disciplined?

Abstract

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Section snippets

Methods

Results

Discussion

QRB Qual Rev Bull

Am J Obstet Gynecol

Am J Med

Summary of 2000 board actions

Summary of 2003 board actions

Four years experience of a hospital’s impaired physician committee

J Addic Dis

The Oregon experience with impaired physicians on probationan eight-year follow-up

JAMA

Physicians disciplined for sex-related offenses

JAMA

Clinical research study
Disciplinary action against physicians: Who is likely to get disciplined?