Besides being a doctor, I'm also a paramedic. Something here doesn't pass the "smell test". Unintentional errors don't get one suspended. Things happen. Suspensions and revocations come from intentional actions. That's just the way it is. People that steal from dead bodies, they lose their card, and get arrested.
I could be all wrong. That is - eminently - possible. This doesn't apply to your question, but I address the bigger picture. If I am misdirected, my apologies.
FORNEY, Texas — The Texas Medical Board has suspended the license of a pediatrician practicing at clinics in Forney and Rockwall, according to an order of temporary suspension obtained by
www.inforney.com
Unfortunately, even your profession in medicine will suspend or revoke for absolutely egregious errors if incompetence is proved (even if completely unintentional and the offending provider is remorseful). This one above has other issues, but Texas has no problem handing out discipline after malpractice and documentation issues for anyone (in fact, to the point that I view the Texas Board to be punitive compared with other states. AZ on the other hand, is notorious for not doing anything about their problem licensees until the Arizona Republic publishes yet another expose on the Board being weak.
Things happen, but if a practitioner is unsafe, the Board better be taking steps as quackery is within their remit to deal with. Doesn't have to be intentional, an unsafe practitioner is an unsafe practitioner, it's just much easier to bring the revocation hammer down on malicious behavior. What you benefit from is the fact that your medical school and residency training is really designed to teach to a very high standard of competency that while we bag on it at times for all the politics with ACGME, there are real expectations to condition an expectation to be automatically safe by instinct as well as practice.
Suspensions do happen uncommonly for unintentional but consequential misadventures (usually involving major patient morbidity or mortality). I've known of revocations within pharmacy over mortality matters, OH being the most infamous. If you want to tour a Kindred hospital with a rounding IM physician there someday, I'm sure that physician will be able to point out just who is in there due to Physician's Mutual, and which ones actually faced discipline over those mistakes. If you want to DM me, I can tell you a story about my dear pediatrician, a really sincerely good man and old school physician in terms of poverty work, and how he ended his 49-year career in East Texas for clinical mistakes which the only reason why Texas did not take further action was due to back office actions.
So, if I do consider a license that has been disciplined for a clinical mistake (and I have), I treat it the same way that I do with IA's, was there relevant evidence that the person has embraced better practice? Because all of us have made mistakes, it is only by grace that I have not made a permanent one in my practice. That said, it's not certain that someone has actually changed. I'm pretty adverse to reviewing a substance abuse or a child support application without evidence in participation in a remedial program. And I won't consider an application myself if the reason is for some malicious reason while having the power of that license.
