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

MASSACHUSETTS

1999 serious action rate: 2.43/1000 doctors
1999 ranking: 39th

In Massachusetts, there were disciplinary actions reported against 396 doctors including 51 who were disciplined for substance abuse, 20 for misprescribing or overprescribing drugs, 2 for sexual abuse of or sexual misconduct with a patient, 14 for substandard care, incompetence or negligence and 20 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 Massachusetts Board of Registration provided a historical list of all disciplinary actions ever taken up to May 9, 1990. This list includes the physician's name, license number, the date and type of action taken, the date the license was restored (if applicable), and usually an abbreviated summary of the reason for the action. It contains some information on the disposition of appeals. From January 1991 through August 1999 the Board sent disciplinary action reports that include the physician's name, license number, address, the date and type of action taken, and a brief description of the reason for the action. The reports contained information on modifications and terminations of board actions but not on court decisions that affected board actions. Massachusetts sent separate information on these actions. As of September 1999, Massachusetts no longer sent us this information, but instead, referred us to their web site (see below) which provided action listings and press releases with the physicians name, title, address, the date and type of action, a brief description of the reason for the action, and modifications or terminations of the actions.

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 Massachusetts or that match a physician disciplined by Massachusetts are also included.

Massachusetts Board Internet Address: http://www.massmedboard.org

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. The internet address for the Osteopathic Board is http://www.doh.wa.gov/SBOH . We did not rate osteopathic boards in our survey. 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, Massachusetts took 67 serious formal disciplinary actions against MDs and DOs in 1999. Compared to the 27,622 MDs in the state, Massachusetts had a serious disciplinary action rate of 2.43 serious actions per 1,000 MDs and a ranking of 39th on that list (see Table A).

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

Table 1. Disciplinary Actions Against MDs and DOs 1990 through 1999*
Actions	Number	Percent**
Revocation	52	8.9%
Surrender	69	11.8%
Suspension	83	14.2%
Probation	101	17.2%
Practice Restriction	23	3.9%
Action Taken Against Controlled Substance License	2	0.3%
Other Actions	256	43.7%
Total Actions	586	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	20	5.9%
Sexual Abuse of or Sexual Misconduct with a Patient	2	0.6%
Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence	14	4.1%
Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs	21	6.2%
Substance Abuse	62	18.3%
Disciplinary Action Taken Against License by Another State or Agency	58	17.2%
Other Offenses	161	47.6%
Total Records With Offense Listed	338	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 Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	1	4.8%
Surrender	1	4.8%
Suspension	2	9.5%
Emergency Suspension	1	4.8%
Probation	2	9.5%
Practice Restriction	5	23.8%
Fine	1	4.8%
Reprimand	3	14.3%
Other Actions	5	23.8%
Total Actions	21	100.0%

Table 4. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Criminal Conviction
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	13	61.9%
Surrender	1	4.8%
Suspension	3	14.3%
Probation	2	9.5%
Fine	1	4.8%
Other Action	1	4.8%
Total Actions	21	100.0%

Table 5. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	4	15.4%
Suspension	6	23.1%
Emergency Suspension	2	7.7%
Probation	2	7.7%
Restriction of Controlled Substance License	1	3.8%
Fine	6	23.1%
Education	2	7.7%
Other Actions	3	11.5%
Total Actions	26	100.0%

Table 6. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Substance Abuse
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	4	5.7%
Suspension	15	21.4%
Emergency Suspension	2	2.9%
Probation	39	55.7%
Fine	1	1.4%
Other Actions	9	12.9%
Total Actions	70	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
Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine
Alexander Fleming, JD, Executive Director
10 West St.,Third Floor
Boston, MA 02111
(617) 727-3086

Internet Address: http://www.massmedboard.org