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Doctors whose mistakes led to death still have the
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Board seen as lenient on physician errors
Associated Press
Web Posted : 07/28/2002 12:00 AM
DALLAS - The state agency responsible for disciplining Texas doctors has not revoked the license of a single physician who committed medical errors in the past five years, including some whose botched operations or misdiagnoses resulted in patient deaths, the Dallas Morning News reported in today's editions.
The newspaper reviewed thousands of pages of Texas State Board of Medical Examiners disciplinary orders and more than 100 malpractice case files in 18 county courthouses across Texas.
It found that since January 2001, the board had not investigated the deaths of 1,000 patients.
Donald Patrick, who became the board's executive director in September, acknowledged there were problems, but said an overhaul targeting lax workers, poor record-keeping and regulatory problems is under way.
"We didn't do as well as we should," he said.
Some agency staff members and officials blamed bureaucratic inefficiency, a shortage of money and a reluctance by board members to confront doctors who injure patients.
The board has 18 members, 12 of whom are doctors, and has the power to remove Texas physicians.
It has taken more than 700 disciplinary actions against physicians in the past five years, but none was related to medical errors.
In the same period, the board revoked the licenses of only 18 doctors practicing in the state. Three committed mail fraud, several failed drug tests and one didn't pay income taxes.
Critics said the board effectively gives doctors a license to kill.
"With the Texas board, you get at least one dead patient," Dallas medical malpractice lawyer Les Weisbrod said. "You've got to kill two or three before they do anything to you."
Doctors who never faced scrutiny despite allegations of medical malpractice include Dr. Charles C. Bittle Jr.
The * doctor was involved in the care of two patients he misdiagnosed and later died, but the board never took any action against Bittle.
In 1991, Bittle diagnosed a 3-year-old child in the emergency room of a Lancaster hospital with gastroenteritis and sent him home with medicine for nausea.
It later was revealed that the boy had intestinal blockage. He died five days after his ER visit from blood poisoning.
The child's parents claimed that Bittle misread the X-rays. Their suit against him was settled in 1992 for $570,000.
The 42-year-old Bittle, who recently moved from * and now lives in Lubbock, did not respond to requests for comment.
Bittle was disciplined by the board in 1994, but not for the two death cases.
Instead, he was cited for not performing sufficient follow-up visits on nine geriatric patients. The board ordered him to take courses in risk management and record keeping.
In 1998, more than 4,500 malpractice claims or suits were filed against Texas doctors, according to agency records.
About 750 claims resulted in payments to patients, averaging $344,000 per case, and the board investigated only 121 cases, taking disciplinary proceedings against only three physicians.
Between January 2001 and May 2002, the board said it reviewed 6,038 malpractice claims, but did not investigate any of them, including the 1,068 cases that involved a patient death.
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=770258
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Associated Press
Web Posted : 07/28/2002 12:00 AM
DALLAS - The state agency responsible for disciplining Texas doctors has not revoked the license of a single physician who committed medical errors in the past five years, including some whose botched operations or misdiagnoses resulted in patient deaths, the Dallas Morning News reported in today's editions.
The newspaper reviewed thousands of pages of Texas State Board of Medical Examiners disciplinary orders and more than 100 malpractice case files in 18 county courthouses across Texas.
It found that since January 2001, the board had not investigated the deaths of 1,000 patients.
Donald Patrick, who became the board's executive director in September, acknowledged there were problems, but said an overhaul targeting lax workers, poor record-keeping and regulatory problems is under way.
"We didn't do as well as we should," he said.
Some agency staff members and officials blamed bureaucratic inefficiency, a shortage of money and a reluctance by board members to confront doctors who injure patients.
The board has 18 members, 12 of whom are doctors, and has the power to remove Texas physicians.
It has taken more than 700 disciplinary actions against physicians in the past five years, but none was related to medical errors.
In the same period, the board revoked the licenses of only 18 doctors practicing in the state. Three committed mail fraud, several failed drug tests and one didn't pay income taxes.
Critics said the board effectively gives doctors a license to kill.
"With the Texas board, you get at least one dead patient," Dallas medical malpractice lawyer Les Weisbrod said. "You've got to kill two or three before they do anything to you."
Doctors who never faced scrutiny despite allegations of medical malpractice include Dr. Charles C. Bittle Jr.
The * doctor was involved in the care of two patients he misdiagnosed and later died, but the board never took any action against Bittle.
In 1991, Bittle diagnosed a 3-year-old child in the emergency room of a Lancaster hospital with gastroenteritis and sent him home with medicine for nausea.
It later was revealed that the boy had intestinal blockage. He died five days after his ER visit from blood poisoning.
The child's parents claimed that Bittle misread the X-rays. Their suit against him was settled in 1992 for $570,000.
The 42-year-old Bittle, who recently moved from * and now lives in Lubbock, did not respond to requests for comment.
Bittle was disciplined by the board in 1994, but not for the two death cases.
Instead, he was cited for not performing sufficient follow-up visits on nine geriatric patients. The board ordered him to take courses in risk management and record keeping.
In 1998, more than 4,500 malpractice claims or suits were filed against Texas doctors, according to agency records.
About 750 claims resulted in payments to patients, averaging $344,000 per case, and the board investigated only 121 cases, taking disciplinary proceedings against only three physicians.
Between January 2001 and May 2002, the board said it reviewed 6,038 malpractice claims, but did not investigate any of them, including the 1,068 cases that involved a patient death.
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=770258
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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