Letter to the West Virginia Board of Medicine
Sidney Wolfe,
M.D. Public Citizen Health Research Group Director
Charleston, West Virginia
January 23, 2003
To Read the West Virginia Report, CLICK HERE.
Dear Board Members:
The Public Citizen Health Research Group promotes research-based, system-wide changes in health care policy and acts as a watchdog over drugs, medical devices, doctors, hospitals and occupational health. Public Citizen is an independent voice for citizens in the halls of power and accepts no government or corporate funding.
On behalf of the 360 members of Public Citizen in West Virginia, I am requesting that the Board initiate investigations into the professional competency of twenty West Virginia physicians who have lost or settled five or more medical malpractice cases but who had not been subjected to discipline by the state’s medical board as of September 2002.
The West Virginia Board of Medicine has the power to independently initiate disciplinary proceedings based on information received from medical peer review committees, physicians, podiatrists, hospital administrators, professional societies, and others. The statute also states that the Board may take action if there are five judgments or settlements within the most recent five-year period in excess of fifty thousand dollars each. We realize that statute is permissive and that the Board is under no duty to do so.
Doctors in West Virginia account for 0.57 percent of U.S. physicians but make up 1.69 percent of U.S. physicians who have had five or more malpractice payouts, a nearly three-fold over-representation. West Virginia ranks second only to Pennsylvania in such over-representation. Only 25.5 percent of these 47 doctors have been disciplined by the medical board.
If medical boards, quite aware of which doctors in their states have had multiple malpractice payouts against them, are unwilling or unable to seriously discipline them, these doctors will likely continue to cause preventable deaths and injuries.
The following are descriptions gleaned from the public-use file of the National Practitioner Data Bank of doctors with multiple malpractice payments who practice in West Virginia, none of whom have been disciplined by the state. While the identities of these physicians are withheld from the public, you, the Board, are permitted to order the non-redacted files from NPDB.
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Physician Number 40689 settled six malpractice lawsuits and lost one judgment for malpractice between 1992 and 2002 involving three incidents of surgery, delay in treatment, improper treatment, and two retained foreign bodies, and improper management of surgical patient. The damages add up to $855,000.
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Physician Number 40735 settled five malpractice lawsuits and lost one judgment for malpractice between 1993 and 2001 involving improper performance of surgery, two incidents of improper diagnosis, and three incidents of surgery. The damages add up to $1,056,250.
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Physician Number 40778 settled six malpractice lawsuits, including one in Ohio, between 1992 and 2001 involving three incidents of failure to diagnose, improper practice of obstetrics, failure to obtain consent/lack of informed consent for surgery, improper diagnosis, and delay in diagnosis. The damages add up to $2,397,500.
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Physician Number 40849 settled six malpractice lawsuits between 1991 and 2000 involving two incidents of failure to perform surgery, two incidents of improper performance of surgery, surgery, and improper positioning of surgery. The damages add up to $1,125,000.
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Physician Number 40905 settled five malpractice lawsuits between 1993 and 2002 involving two incidents of medication administration related, obstetrics, diagnosis, improper management of course of treatment, and delay in treatment. Damages add up to $627,500.
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Physician Number 40919 settled at least four malpractice lawsuits between 1991 and 2000 involving surgery, failure to diagnose, wrong diagnosis, delay in diagnosis, and two incidents of obstetrics. Damages add up to $1,322,500.
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Physician Number 40968 settled seven malpractice lawsuits between 1991 and 2002 involving six incidents of surgery, retained foreign body, improper management of course of treatment, and failure to refer or seek consultation. Damages add up to $1,422,500.
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Physician Number 40977 settled four malpractice lawsuits and lost one malpractice judgment between 1992 and 2002 involving two incidents of failure to perform surgery, failure to diagnose, wrong treatment/procedure performed, and unnecessary surgery. Damages add up to $605,000.
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Physician Number 41016 settled six malpractice lawsuits between 1991 and 1995 involving diagnosis, improper choice of delivery method, two incidents of obstetrics, failure to obtain consent/lack of informed consent for surgery, and delay in diagnosis. Damages add up to $1,950,000.
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Physician Number 41050 settled at least five malpractice lawsuits between 1990 and 2001 involving two incidents of surgery, two incidents of delay in diagnosis, two incidents of failure to perform surgery, unnecessary surgery, failure to obtain consent/lack of informed consent for surgery, improper performance of surgery, improper management of surgical patient, and failure to refer or seek consultation. Damages add up to $626,250.
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Physician Number 41086 settled four malpractice lawsuits and lost one malpractice judgment between 1990 and 2002 involving two incidents of surgery, failure to diagnose, improper performance of surgery, and failure to medicate. Damages add up to $2,105,000.
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Physician Number 41103 settled five malpractice lawsuits between 1992 and 2001 involving two incidents of surgery, two incidents of delay in treatment, treatment, and retained foreign body. Damages add up to $1,217,500.
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Physician Number 57533 settled eleven malpractice lawsuits between 1994 and 2001 involving treatment, unnecessary surgery, four incidents of improper management of surgical patient, five incidents of surgery, medication administration related, and two incidents of improper performance of surgery. Damages add up to $3,241,250.
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Physician Number 58478 settled seventeen malpractice lawsuits between 1994 and 1998 involving fourteen incidents of equipment/product related, fourteen incidents of failure to obtain consent/lack of informed consent for treatment, surgery, improper performance of surgery, improper positioning of surgery, and one miscellaneous incident. Damages add up to $320,250.
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Physician Number 58737 settled five malpractice lawsuits between 1994 and 1999 involving two incidents of use of equipment/product, two incidents of failure to obtain consent/lack of informed consent, two incidents of improper performance of surgery, and one miscellaneous incident. The damages added up to $235,000.
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Physician Number 80822 settled 5 medical malpractice lawsuits (including one in Arizona) between 1994 and 1999 involving the failure to diagnose, improper surgery and improper management of course of treatment. The damages added up to $960,000.
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Physician Number 119387 settled 21 medical malpractice lawsuits (including 19 in South Carolina) involving the failure to obtain informed consent, and improper use of equipment/product (not otherwise coded). The damages in the two West Virginia cases added up to $482,500. The total damages added up to $533,000.
Your prompt attention to this matter is appreciated.
To Read the West Virginia Report, CLICK HERE.
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