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Doctor's Past
Posted: 7:20 PM, Nov 20, 2019 • Updated: 7:24 PM, Nov 20, 2019
Before going to the doctor or having surgery, patients are told to do their
research. We took that advice and discovered why it is so easy for doctors
who behave badly to hide.
"I lost my wife, my best friend," Michael Picard of Paso Robles said, who
sued his wife's doctor for her death. Court documents accuse the doctor
of ignoring the woman's post-surgery infection and she died in her sleep.
We originally set out to find out how many other local doctors were being
sued for alleged medical mistakes. What we found is that information is
hard to find. It is not even on the California Medical Board's website.
"Their website is called 'Breeze' and it's not a breeze. It's very difficult
meander," said Eric Andrist who co-developed the Patient Safety League
after he said medical errors killed two of his family members.
He has made it easy to look up doctor's who have been accused or
charged of medical negligence on his website: www.4patientsafety.org.
"People can come, find their doctor on our website, and they can very
succinctly look at what the charges are against them," Andrist said.
In the past fours years, the medical board has taken action against the
licenses of 40 doctors in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties.
The accusations range from over-prescribing medications to sexual
misconduct. It took KSBY's Carina Corral a half hour to compile that list
from the Patient Safety League's website.
We then asked the California Medical Board for the same information.
The Public Affairs Office said it would take two weeks and cost $130.
Corral requested that information a week ago, but is still waiting for a
response.
We were also given instructions on how to look it up ourselves. After an
hour of sifting through hundreds of pages of legal documents, penal
codes and spreadsheets, we had only gotten through a handful of
doctors.
"I don't know how they expect an average person to get through that and
find the information they're looking for," Andrist said.
It is listed on 4patientsafety.org.
The Patient Safety League’s website at www.4patientsafety.org
"If a patient is looking in to their radiologist, that seems like that would
be something they would want to know?" Corral asked Villatoro.
"There are records that are available that aren't on the physician's profile
page and this may or may not be one of those," he replied.
There were 11,000 complaints filed with the board in 2018; however,
complaints against contractors are made public on the on the same
consumer affair's website.
"So if you want to look up your bathroom contractor you can find out if
they have a complaint against them, but you can't find out if you're going
to go in and get life saving surgery," Andrist said.
And going back to what initiated our investigation, when we asked the
board for malpractice reports on local doctors we were told it would cost
$745, names not included.
"Another way a consumer can find that out is if they went to their local
courthouse," Villatoro said.
The board has taken steps to make it easier to understand actions taken
against physicians by creating an app and email alerts.
It also states it now lists the terms of a doctor's probation at the top of
their profile pages; although, none of the local doctors we looked up
included this information.