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

MISSISSIPPI

1999 serious action rate: 5.87/1000 doctors
1999 ranking: 8th

In Mississippi, there were disciplinary actions reported against 231 doctors including 11 who were disciplined for substance abuse, 17 for misprescribing or overprescribing drugs, 1 for sexual abuse of or sexual misconduct with a patient, and 4 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 Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure sent copies of disciplinary action reports covering the period from 1990 through 1999. These reports include the physician's name, license number, date of birth, address, the date and type of action taken, and sometimes a brief description of the reason for the action. They contain information on modifications and terminations of board actions, but not on court decisions affecting board actions. The Mississippi Board stated that court decisions would be included in the information we received.

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

Mississippi Board Internet Address: http://www.msbml.state.ms.us

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, Mississippi took 30 serious disciplinary actions against MDs and DOs in 1999. Compared to the 5,107 MDs licensed in the state, Mississippi had a serious disciplinary action rate of 5.87 serious actions per 1,000 MDs and ranked 8th on that list (see Table A).

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

Table 1. Disciplinary Actions Against MDs and DOs 1990 through 1999*
Action	Number	Percent**
Revocation	18	6.0%
Surrender	32	10.7%
Suspension	32	10.7%
Probation	114	38.3%
Practice Restriction	28	9.4%
Action Taken Against Controlled Substance License	31	10.4%
Other Actions	43	14.4%
Total Actions	298	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	4	5.7%
Sexual Abuse of or Sexual Misconduct with a Patient	1	1.4%
Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence	0	0.0%
Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs	17	24.3%
Substance Abuse	11	15.7%
Disciplinary Action Taken Against License by Another State or Agency	24	34.3%
Other Offenses	13	18.6%
Total Records With Offense Listed	70	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 Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	4	16.7%
Surrender	2	8.3%
Revocation, Surrender, or Suspension of Controlled Substance License	1	4.2%
Probation	6	25.0%
Restriction of Controlled Substance License	9	37.5%
Education	1	4.2%
Other Actions	1	4.2%
Total Actions	24	100.0%

Table 4. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Substance Abuse
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	3	16.7%
Revocation, Surrender, or Suspension of Controlled Substance License	2	11.1%
Suspension	1	5.6%
Probation	5	27.8%
Restriction of Controlled Substance License	4	22.2%
Other Actions	3	16.7%
Total Actions	18	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
Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure
P. Doyle Bradshaw, Executive Officer
3000 Old Canton Road, Suite 111
Jackson, MS 39216
(601) 987-3079

Internet Address: http://www.msbml.state.ms.us