Public Citizen is a consumer watchdog group that works long and hard to protect Americans with programs to advocate for affordable, clean, and sustainable energy; to insure auto and highway safety; and to fight for patient safety – which includes making doctors accountable for their mistakes and bad acts.
This week, Public Citizen released its yearly report on how well or how bad the various states are doing in monitoring the doctors licensed in their states, and in taking disciplinary actions against doctors when the need arises. You can read the Public Citizen Physician Accountability Report for 2012 online here.
Are You and Your Loved Ones at Risk of Medical Malpractice? Yes.
From the Public Citizen research and investigation into 2011 physician actions and state medical board data, we know the following:
3.06 doctors out of every 1,000 were subjected to serious disciplinary actions by state medical boards: Public Citizen suggests that the low numbers mean that doctors are not getting disciplined as they should be by the state authorities.
The best states to practice as a bad doctor? Public Citizen’s Worst 10 list is:
- South Carolina
- District of Columbia
- Minnesota
- Massachusetts
- Connecticut
- Wisconsin
- Rhode Island
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- Florida.
Medical malpractice is real. Doctors make mistakes that cause serious harm and sometimes the wrongful death of their patient. Let’s hope that the hard work of watchdog groups like Public Citizen prod those responsible in protecting us – like state medical boards – into doing more to keeping us all safe.
