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

IOWA

1999 serious action rate: 5.00/1000 doctors
1999 ranking: 11th

In Iowa, there were disciplinary actions reported against 355 doctors including 32 who were disciplined for substance abuse, 9 for misprescribing or overprescribing drugs, 12 for sexual abuse of or sexual misconduct with a patient, 35 for substandard care, incompetence or negligence and 8 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 Iowa State Board of Medical Examiners sent monthly newsletters from January 1990 through October 1995. The listings include the physician's name, degree, date of birth, license number, city of residence, and date and type of action taken. Although the 1990 newsletters do not list the reason for the action, subsequent newsletters occasionally do. From November 1995 through December 1999 the Board sent press releases listing actions taken which include the physician’s name, degree, city and state of residence, type of action taken and reason for the action. For 1999 orders accompanied the press release which contained additional information. The press releases and orders did not contain information regarding modifications and terminations of board orders or on court decisions affecting board actions. Iowa was not able to send additional information.

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

Besides disciplinary actions taken by the State Medical Board, 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 Iowa or that match a physician disciplined by Iowa are also included.

BS00024A.gif (1893 bytes) Iowa Board Internet Address: http://www.docboard.org/ia/ia_home.htm.htm

This state has a web site which we have graded B 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, Iowa took 33 serious disciplinary actions against MDs and DOs in 1999. Compared to the 6,602 MDs licensed in the state, Iowa had a serious disciplinary action rate of 5.00 serious actions per 1,000 MDs and ranked 11th on that list (see Table A, Findings, pg. 14).

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

Table 1. Disciplinary Actions Against MDs and DOs 1990 through 1999*
Action	Number	Percent**
Revocation	31	5.9%
Surrender	56	10.6%
Suspension	63	12.0%
Probation	131	24.9%
Practice Restriction	27	5.1%
Action Taken Against Controlled Substance License	6	1.1%
Other Actions	212	40.3%
Total Actions	526	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	9	2.9%
Sexual Abuse of or Sexual Misconduct with a Patient	13	4.2%
Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence	40	13.0%
Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs	10	3.2%
Substance Abuse	34	11.0%
Disciplinary Action Taken Against License by Another State or Agency	108	35.1%
Other Offenses	94	30.5%
Total Records With Offense Listed	308	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
Surrender	1	4.3%
Suspension	2	8.7%
Probation	5	21.7%
Fine	6	26.1%
Other Actions	9	39.1%
Total Actions	23	100.0%

Table 4. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	4	7.4%
Surrender	5	9.3%
Suspension	6	11.1%
Emergency Suspension	2	3.7%
Probation	9	16.7%
Practice Restriction	10	18.5%
Fine	5	9.3%
Reprimand	3	5.6%
Other Actions	10	18.5%
Total Actions	54	100.0%

Table 5. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Criminal Conviction
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	1	7.7%
Probation	3	23.1%
Fine	3	23.1%
Other Actions	6	46.2%
Total Actions	13	100.0%

Table 6. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs
Action	Number	Percent
Surrender	1	5.3%
Probation	2	10.5%
Restriction on Controlled Substance License	1	5.3%
Fine	9	47.4%
Other Actions	6	31.6%
Total Actions	19	100.0%

Table 7. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Substance Abuse
Action	Number	Percent
Surrender	2	3.9%
Suspension	4	7.8%
Emergency Suspension	1	2.0%
Probation	30	58.8%
Fine	2	3.9%
Required to Enter an Impaired Physician Program or Substance Abuse Treatment	11	21.6%
Other Actions	1	2.0%
Total Actions	51	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.

Address
Iowa State Board of Medical Examiners
Ann M. Martino, Ph.D. Executive Director
400 SW 8th Street, Suite C
Des Moines, IA 50309-4686
(515) 281-5171

Fax: (515) 242-5908

Internet address: http://www.docboard.org/ia/ia_home.htm