Public Citizen's Health Research Group: Questionable Doctors: California

CALIFORNIA

1999 serious action rate: 4.04/1000 doctors
1999 ranking: 20th

In California, there were disciplinary actions reported against 2309 doctors including 36 who were disciplined for substance abuse, 90 for misprescribing or overprescribing drugs, 57 for sexual abuse of or sexual misconduct with a patient, 375 for substandard care, incompetence or negligence and 256 who were convicted of a crime.

This web site provides aggregate national and state data on doctor discipline. Names of those doctors and their offenses are NOT included on the site. Web sites with such information need to be frequently updated and we cannot do this because of limited staff and resources available to continually monitor the information that we receive from the 51 MD and 14 DO licensing boards and the federal government. This website does provide direct links to the web sites of those boards that have information available on the internet.

Detailed information on specific doctors who have been disciplined is included in the book which can be purchased in regional editions for $20. The book includes disciplinary actions taken against doctors from 1990 through December 1999.

The Medical Board of California sent monthly and quarterly newsletters summarizing disciplinary actions taken from 1990 through 1999. These reports include the physician's name, degree, license number, city and state of residence, date and type of action taken, reason for the action and, in some cases only, whether judicial review had been completed. Listings of voluntary surrenders while the cases were pending did not include descriptions of the charges against the physicians. The reports contain no information on modifications and terminations of board actions. They did list the results of some appeals, but we cannot guarantee that all appeals or all court decisions were included. California sent separate information on these decisions. The newsletters sent in 1992 did not include a reason for the action but did include a date of birth.

The Osteopathic Medical Board of California sent newsletters and lists summarizing disciplinary actions taken from 1990 through 1999. From these reports we obtained the physician's name, degree, license number, address, date and type of action taken and reason for the action. Listings of voluntary surrenders while the cases were pending did not include descriptions of the charges against the physicians. The reports contain no information on modifications and terminations of board actions or of court decisions affecting board actions. California informed us no such actions had taken place.

The information provided covers disciplinary actions taken against allopathic physicians (MDs) and osteopathic physicians (DOs).

Besides disciplinary actions taken by the State Medical Boards, this listing also includes actions taken by the Medicare/Medicaid programs, the FDA, and the DEA against physicians located in this state. Disciplinary actions taken by other states against physicians located in California or that match a physician disciplined by California are also included.

Board Internet Address: http://www.medbd.ca.gov

This state has a web site which we have graded D on a scale of A (best) to X (worst) as part of our February 2000 Survey of Doctor Disciplinary Information on State Medical Board Web Sites. This grade is a measure of the completeness of the information on disciplined doctors. Those state licensing boards with web sites make independent choices about the type of information to be included on their site and how often it is updated.

According to the Federation of State Medical Boards, California issued 367 serious disciplinary actions against MDs in 1999. Compared to the 90,940 MDs in the state, California had a serious disciplinary action rate of 4.04 serious actions per 1,000 MDs and ranked 20th on that list (see Table A).

The tables below summarize the data Public Citizen received from California.

Table 1. Disciplinary Actions Against MDs and DOs 1990 through 1999*
Action	Number	Percent**
Revocation	535	20.0%
Surrender	461	17.3%
Suspension	265	9.9%
Probation	1118	41.9%
Practice Restriction	4	0.2%
Action Taken Against Controlled Substance License	2	0.1%
Other Actions	285	10.7%
Total Actions	2670	100.0%

* This table lists only the two most serious disciplinary actions taken against a physician.
** Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.

Table 2. Offenses for which MDs and DOs were Disciplined 1990 through 1999*
Offense	Number	Percent
Criminal Conviction	258	15.7%
Sexual Abuse of or Sexual Misconduct with a Patient	57	3.5%
Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence	380	23.1%
Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs	92	5.6%
Substance Abuse	36	2.2%
Disciplinary Action Taken Against License by Another State or Agency	450	27.3%
Other Offenses	374	22.7%
Total Records With Offense Listed	1647	100.0%

* Includes only those actions for which an offense was listed and for which we had a corresponding term in our database.

Table 3. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Sexual Abuse of or Sexual Misconduct with a Patient
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	13	17.8%
Suspension	16	21.9%
Probation	42	57.5%
Other Actions	2	2.7%
Total Actions	73	100.0%

Table 4. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	48	11.1%
Suspension	54	12.5%
Probation	288	66.8%
Practice Restriction	1	0.2%
Reprimand	39	9.0%
Other Actions	1	0.2%
Total Actions	431	100.0%

Table 5. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Criminal Conviction
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	84	25.9%
Suspension	65	20.1%
Probation	167	51.5%
Other Actions	8	2.5%
Total Actions	324	100.0%

Table 6. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	12	10.7%
Suspension	21	18.8%
Probation	65	58.0%
Other Actions	14	12.5%
Total Actions	112	100.0%

Table 7. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Substance Abuse
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	5	12.2%
Suspension	4	9.8%
Probation	31	75.6%
Other Actions	1	2.4%
Total Actions	41	100.0%

If you feel that your doctor has not given you proper medical care or has mistreated you in any way--whether or not he or she is listed in this report--it is important that you let your state medical board know. Even if they do not immediately act on your complaint, it is important that the information be recorded in their files because it is possible that other people may have filed or will file complaints about the same doctor. Send a brief written description of what occurred to the addresses below or call the phone numbers listed for more information on how to file a complaint.

Addresses
Medical Board of California
Ronald Joseph, Executive Director
1426 Howe Ave., Suite 54
Sacramento, CA 95825-3236
(916) 263-2388
Internet: http://www.medbd.ca.gov

Osteopathic Medical Board of California
Linda J. Bergmann, Executive Director
2720 Gateway Oaks Drive, Suite 350
Sacramento, CA 95833
(916 ) 263-3100