Since its inception, the National Practitioner Data Bank ("Data Bank") has made its imposing presence known to all physicians. Approximately 200,000 physicians are listed. Virtually every doctor worries about being reported and the potential effect a report will have on their career. Physicians historically have been able to take some comfort in the knowledge that the Data Bank is only accessible to hospitals, other healthcare organizations, and insurers; entities that can "objectively" interpret the import of a report... until now. While the actual Data Bank is still not open to the public, private organizations are seeking to make a profit by making physician malpractice histories available to the public.
HealthGrades, the nation's leading healthcare ratings organization, recently launched the nation's first "National Physician Malpractice Database for the Public." The database contains physician malpractice and settlement records in 15 U.S. states, and it is seeking to expand rapidly. Thus far, the states covered are California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont and West Virginia. While Healthgrades has information on over 700,000 US physicians (nearly every American doctor), this new service is without precedent.
How popular is Healthgrades? They claim that over 3 million Americans use their data to research and select their physician. Additionally, seventy percent of consumers consider malpractice history the "biggest help" in choosing a physician. This clearly indicates that in today's climate, settling ANY malpractice claim, even a nuisance suit, can have a drastic effect on one's practice.
While the Data Bank has impacted the careers of numerous excellent physicians with one or two nuisance settlements, at least hospitals and healthcare organizations have been able to interpret the information in proper context with a more detailed knowledge of medical malpractice and the legal climate surrounding it. The general public has none of this expertise. A hospital knows that a $30,000 settlement is less than the cost of defense; and, more likely than not, an attorney would never settle a meritorious claim for such a sum. The lay-public is almost certainly clueless that physicians often have no choice when their insurance companies make a business decision and choose to settle, even in the case of a complete absence of genuine medical error.
In the Internet information age, patients will continue to have more access to raw data, which means that maintaining a spotless record is more important now than ever before. Standing by and allowing one's insurer to settle a malpractice case is no longer a safe option. And while the Data Bank gives physicians an opportunity to correct an error, it is unclear that Healthgrades will afford physicians the same courtesy.
Just as the "misinformation highway" can expose physicians to new threats, so must physicians find new strategies to proactively protect themselves. Medical Justice has been successfully helping physicians stay clear of the Data Bank for five years now by deterring meritless claims and proactively assisting in having frivolous malpractice claims dropped sooner rather than later. Similarly, the best way to avoid a debut appearance in the new Healthgrades database is to set up the proper infrastructure to prevent frivolous claims from mushrooming into the type of suit an insurance company would find all too tempting to settle.
Medical Justice™ is a program designed by a board certified neurosurgeon to protect physicians from frivolous suits - before they occur.
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