Journalists protest Obama admin's shutdown of bad-doctor database; HRSA threatens reporter.

[Brickbat]

http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2011/09/ahcj-other-journalism-organizations-protest-removal-of-data-from-public-website/

Sept. 15, 2011

The Association of Health Care Journalists, joined by the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors, sent a letter to the Obama administration today protesting its decision to pull offline a public database of physician discipline and malpractice payments.

AHCJ, SPJ and IRE called for the government to immediately restore access to the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank. The government has made this file available online for years, and reporters have used it to call attention to lax oversight of physicians across the country.

Pursuant to the law, the public version of the database does not identify physicians by name or address, but it does provide other useful information about hospital sanctions, malpractice payouts and state disciplinary actions against every doctor in the country.

As an example, the database would allow a reporter or researcher to discover that certain, unnamed physicians have been sanctioned repeatedly by their hospitals but never were disciplined by their state’s medical board. It would also be possible to find doctors with lengthy trails of malpractice who continued to enjoy clear licenses.

Here is a list of the kinds of stories reporters get from database information. By clicking on the link up top, you can click through to each of these stories.

The Kansas City Star

• Doctors with histories of alleged malpractice often go undisciplined
• Obama’s HHS shuts down public access to doctor malpractice data

Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune

• AHCJ article: Duluth News Tribune exposes malpractice allegations
• As Duluth hospital reaped millions, surgeon racked up complaints
• Multiple allegations against former St. Luke’s doctor
• Ailing patients speak out about former Duluth doctor
• Wisconsin restricts former Duluth doctor’s license
• In Texas, former Duluth surgeon may be sanction-free
• Federal database of malpractice cases doesn’t make public doctors’ names, or where they practice

Propublica

States Fail to Report Disciplined Caregivers to Federal Database

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

• Reporters encounter hospital’s lack of transparency
• Tip sheet from Bernhard & Kohler on researching health professionals.
• Award entry: Who Protects the Patients?
• Serious medical errors, little public information
• Caution urged with facedown restraints
• Doctor lost hospital privileges but kept clean record
• Girl, 16, dies during restraint at an already-troubled hospital

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

• Dangerous Doctors
• AHCJ article: Records show ‘dangerous doctors’ rarely face discipline
• Tip sheet from Gina Barton on state oversight of health professionals

[sam11111]

1. is it gone at this moment? PS Nader PIRG grp put(s) out book BAD DOCTORS w/ names

Or did put out the book, last I heard yrs ago. Group began with Nader but split away.

[Brickbat]

2. Kick.

[cutlassmama]

3. K&R. I had a doctor literally kill me (bled out 9 unit of blood) but was saved

at the last minute at a trauma center. Nothing was done about this doctor and Texas doesn't list past sanctions anymore...their database doesn't work. She got off scott free. my concern isn't for me it's for future patients that may actually die under her care.

[BlueIris]

4. Shutting down the data base hurts the public good. Bad doctors should be subject to the same level

of monitoring as sex offenders. The admin's actions here are terrible.

[leftstreet]

5. K&R