I had a conversation with a reporter this afternoon who remarked that the news release we put out today about doctor discipline sounded a lot like the one we put out last year, or the year before. Part of that is true: states, overall, are still doing a lousy job disciplining bad doctors. In fact, two of the largest states, California and Florida, are doing so bad that they’ve slipped into the bottom 10 states when it comes to keeping the public safe from incompetent, unscrupulous or unqualified physicians.
But as a D.C. resident, there is one positive change in there that should be noted: the nation’s capital is doing a much better job of holding doctors accountable than it once did. In the rankings Public Citizen released for 2003, D.C. ranked 42 out of 51. The 2008 rankings have D.C. ranked 23, an impressive move up and one that can be attributed directly to the public pressure brought by public interest advocates, such as Public Citizen, and the Washington Post.
