Support our online development, and advance our onground research initiatives in free market economics, as we seek to showcase the brightest Next-Gen minds.
THE ME-P DISCLAIMER: Posts, comments and opinions do not necessarily represent iMBA, Inc., but become our property after submission. Copyright © 2006 to-date. iMBA, Inc allows colleges, universities, medical and financial professionals and related clinics, hospitals and non-profit healthcare organizations to distribute our proprietary essays, photos, videos, audios and other documents; etc. However, please review copyright and usage information for each individual asset before submission to us, and/or placement on your publication or web site. Attestation references, citations and/or back-links are required. All other assets are property of the individual copyright holder.
Names Reported Missing from Federal Database
By Staff Reporters
Writing in ProPublica, and the Los Angeles Times, Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein report that more than two decades ago, Congress set out to stop dangerous or incompetent caregivers from crossing state lines and landing in trouble again.
So, it ordered up a national database allowing hospitals to check for disciplinary actions taken anywhere in the country against licensed health professionals.
But, this database invoked no fear and dread, like the NPDB for physicians.
Ready for Hospital Use
Now On March 1, 2010– 22 years later – the federal government finally plans to let hospitals use it.
Defective Database?
But, the database is missing serious disciplinary actions against what are probably thousands of health providers.
Division of Practitioner Data Banks (DPDB)
For physicians, the Division of Practitioner Data Banks (DPDB) is responsible for the implementation of the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) and Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB). The NPDB and HIPDB are alert or flagging systems intended to facilitate a comprehensive review of the professional credentials of health care practitioners, providers, and suppliers.
One Doctor’s Opinion
“For doctors, the NPDB was always the “elephant in the room” regarding professional liability reporting, according to ME-P Publisher-in-Chief Dr. David Edward Marcinko, MBA. And so, I find this whole care-giver affair most disturbing. To think, this is the same government that wants to socialize medicine, or force implement eMRs. They should “clean their own house”, first.”
Conclusion
And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Then, be sure to subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.
Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos
Get our Widget: Get this widget!
Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:
Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759
Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790
Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421
Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com
Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com
Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com
Subscribe Now: Did you like this Medical Executive-Post, or find it helpful, interesting and informative? Want to get the latest ME-Ps delivered to your email box each morning? Just subscribe using the link below. You can unsubscribe at any time. Security is assured.
Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos
Share this:
Filed under: "Doctors Only", Professional Liability, Quality Initiatives, Risk Management | Tagged: Charles Ornstein, dangerous healthcare givers, David E. Marcinko, Division of Practitioner Data Banks, National Practitioner Data Bank, ProPublica, Tracy Weber |
The Leading Business Education Network for Doctors, Financial Advisors and Health Industry Consultants 
For more on nursing oversight:
http://www.propublica.org/series/nurses
Clare
LikeLike
Caregivers Gone Bad – Not always Nurses
Don’t forget about the Delaware pediatrician Dr. Earl Bradley who is accused of molesting more than 100 young patients. It can be doctors, or anyone, too.
Child sex abuse scandal stuns Delaware town
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35606897/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts
A Concerned Nurse
LikeLike
Sexy Texts
Sexy texts from a Tampa, Fla [male] doctor:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=125346&catid=8
Clare
LikeLike
Settlement in Stalking/Murder of Nurse
In the well publicized murder of Nurse Lori Dupont at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Canada, the family settled with the employer. Dupont was killed by a doctor who was obessed, erratic and stalked the nurse who requested protection and not to work with the assailant. While the settlement has not been disclosed, family members had been seeking $13.3 million in damages.
Article: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/windsor/story/2010/01/04/windsor-hospital-settlement-100104.html#ixzz0ePzfaHNl
Gene Schmuckler; PhD
LikeLike
More on the Nurse Reporting Recipe
How You Can Investigate Your State’s Oversight of Its Nurses and Other Licensed Professionals
http://projects.propublica.org/state-boards/subjects/nursing
Barbara
LikeLike
More on … Bad Doctors
http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2010/03/database-of-bad-doctors-blocks-public-from-seeing-names-.html#comments
Sibley
LikeLike
Needle error puts 50 people at risk in N.M.
A group of New Mexico medical school students failed to properly change needles on devices used for blood glucose testing, and now officials say a few dozen people might be at risk for contracting serious diseases.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37136268/ns/health-more_health_news
Gary
LikeLike
National Practitioner Data Bank Expands Availability of Infomation
As of March 1, 2010, the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) broadened the availability of information about licensure actions taken against all healthcare practitioners.
This includes information about professional and paraprofessional nurses, chiropractors, podiatrists, pharmacists, physician assistants, optometrists, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, and social workers.
Additional information concerning negative findings and sanctions imposed by state licensing authorities, peer-review organizations, and private accreditation organizations will also now be reported. Limited querying will now be allowed by quality improvement organizations, federal and state healthcare programs, state Medicaid fraud control units and other law enforcement agencies.
In essence, information about disciplinary actions taken again all healthcare providers is now available, and new organizations have been granted permission to file an inquiry.
Source: Michael V. Favia, JD
[May 28, 2010 #3,869]
LikeLike
On Dangerous Healthcare Givers
The NPDB Guidebook states that the NPDB’s “principal purpose is to facilitate a comprehensive review of professional credentials”.
Unfortunately they fall far short of this goal. The NPDB collects different types of information, but a majority of the data collected consists of medical liability claims data against physicians.
The AMA rightly points out that medical liability claims data is a poor indicator of quality.
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/legal-topics/business-management-topics/national-practitioner-data-bank.shtml
Despite the lack of a connection between medical liability data and quality, the NPDB claims to provide a flagging or alert mechanism to put parties on notice that the physician may have competence or professional misconduct problems.
How ironic – the government entity charged with reporting on our level of competence uses faulty and unproven methods to evaluate competence!
Brian J. Knabe MD
http://www.SavantCapital.com
LikeLike
Troubled Nurses Skip from State to State Under Compact
Compact strives to elevate licensing standards across state lines by, among other things, encouraging states to require criminal background checks on nurses.
http://www.propublica.org/article/troubled-nurses-skip-from-state-to-state-under-compact
Ann
LikeLike
States Fail to Report Disciplined Caregivers to Federal Database
Did you know that hundreds of state agencies nationwide have never told the federal government about health professionals they disciplined, undermining a central database meant to weed out dangerous caregivers?
http://www.propublica.org/article/states-fail-to-report-disciplined-caregivers-to-federal-database
Amy
LikeLike
Texas Nurses Fired for Alleging Misconduct Settle Their Law Suit
Amy, the New York Times reported that two nurses just agreed to split a $750,000 payment from Winkler County, Texas to settle a lawsuit they filed after being fired and criminally prosecuted for reporting allegations of improper medical treatment by a doctor at the county hospital.
Seems like the opposite philosophy of your post … and very strange indeed!
Sharon
LikeLike
California County Opens Review into Autopsies by Doctor With Checkered Past
A ProPublica investigation describing the troubled career of forensic pathologist Thomas Gill prompted officials in Northern California to re-examine his work in more than two dozen homicide cases.
http://www.propublica.org/article/california-county-opens-review-into-autopsies-by-doctor-with-checkered-past
And, in “Post Mortem”
Learn about the Real CSI and How America’s Patchwork System of Death Investigations Puts the Living at Risk
http://www.propublica.org/article/the-real-csi-americas-patchwork-system-of-death-investigation
Alexander
LikeLike
National Doctor Database Removed from Public View
[The NPDB]
The national database that tracks malpractice payments and physician sanctions—but doesn’t publicly list the physicians’ names—has made its data file inaccessible to the public out of concern that the pieces of information being disclosed were being “triangulated” with other publicly accessible data sources to determine the identities of doctors listed.
“The National Practitioner Data Bank was never meant to be a public file,” said Martin Kramer, a spokesman for the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration. “By statute, it’s not a public file.”
The file, which lists sanctions against physicians by state medical boards, hospitals, medical societies and the Drug Enforcement Administration and has historically been updated four times a year, “is designed to provide data for statistical analysis only,” according to the NPDB section on the HRSA website. The names of physicians identified in the reports are available only to state medical boards and hospital and healthcare organizations to which doctors may apply for employment, a medical staff appointment, or clinical privileges.
Source: Andis Robeznieks, Modern Physician [9/14/11]
LikeLike