You have to be kidding me. This is very similar to my situation. What we have is a system of scared medical regulators that put their own fears above patient safety. If there is any red flag of any sort, they do not typically take initiative to investigate the cause, but they send the person for a many thousand dollar evaluation. First of all, the medical board is trapped or insistent that they remain within the mindset that (1) the evaluating physician is always right, or that (2) when people are dismissed from a residency program, it signifies that there is something wrong with the resident and not the program.
What this effectively does, is that it enables inept and corrupt leadership in medicine to go unchecked. It is unfathomable, and it boggles the mind, that the medical board would witness the Residency Program Director and Department Chair lie under oath in court while being audio recorded and speaking to the Board and the Judge, and it still wouldn't cross their mind with serious consideration that they should review the patient charts for objective documentation related to patient care and patient safety.
Whether your wife was a trouble maker or not, I cannot say. Yet I can say this, the medical board would accuse a person who screams while being raped of being a trouble maker. Their judgments are riddled with hypocrisy and a lack of responsibility. They have no accountability for their decisions, but only to appear as if they are keeping the public safe.
We have a healthcare system that is literally killing hundreds of patients each week, and the medical board's methods of regulation and discipline have done nothing to stem the tide of death in this country.
If you don't have a lawyer by now, you need to get one. Contact the Bar Association. In addition, it may be prudent to sue the university and to get them to admit on paper that they did not follow the ACGME Policies and Procedures and that it was the University that was acting grossly unethical and violating policy.
The term healthcare leader is becoming a sharade, and what is represents is those persons that close their eyes to the corruption and death and cover-ups that occur routinely in American Healthcare. The IOM report was on point when they identified significant lapses in patient safety that are killing people. Is it really a surprise that this is occuring when, for example, I have reported months of dishonest and unethical conduct of a physician to the medical board in 2011, and they did nothing. The Joint Commission cited the hospital and the laboratory several times for the department's negligence. What is more, is that the medical board reprimanded me, yes, reprimanded me for reporting patient harm. My attorney sees this as a right to attack my character as part of their case. As a physician, I have seen the unsafe patient care in that department that I reported to the Chair, the DIO, an attending, and to other residents, and then to the ACGME and the Medical Board and The Joint Commission. I have seen how this affects people's lives and regardless of whether the medical board attorney has the right to attack my character legally, the attorney has neglected the fundamental duty of the medical board to protect the public from unsafe care.
Whatever can appease the Medical Board your wife should surely do, but if you are disgusted by the lack of quality control in medical education and medical regulation, with lip service only, then I encourage your wife to not forget what has happened when she gets her license. Doctor Antoine Adem, a cardiologist that provided good medical care to his patients, none of whom were harmed, had six counts of fraud committed against him by the medical board of Missouri. This is not an isolated event. The medical board even had a meeting to discuss how to improve their performance. Yet, when the medical board purposefully remains ignorant of events related to patient care, they therefore act on assumptions and prejudice. No effective regulatory commission should receive a report of unsafe patient care, and then ask the accused physician if it is true, and as soon as the accused physician says "no," they close the case.
This is an incredibly ignorant, literally, without knowledge, method of medical regulation and it is the modus operandi of several, if not all state medical boards. The doctors do not perform literature review to determine if a contested case of care is appropriately. They assume that it is not appropriate, toss the case to their attorney and say "litigate," and then act as if they are protecting the public. Dr. Antoine Adem provided by-the-books, guideline-appropriate medical care, and the medical board did not even bother to ask Dr. Adem his therapeutic rationale prior to initiating litigation against him. The ignorant medical board, again literally, without knowledge of the guideline-appropriate practice of medicine, wasted more than $100,000 of tax-payer dollars trying to prosecute a cardiologist for providing good medical care. The Medical Board's insist that they will continue on a pathway of one-direction communication. That one-direction communications is precisely why we have medical boards that commit fraud and repeatedly, and I emphatically state "repeatedly," reprimand doctors for "by-the-books, FDA-approved medical care."
Patients deserve better than lip service from medical boards that would rather print off twitter reports of their inaction than (1) communicate, or (2) investigate reports of unsafe care.
"Tell me more," can go a long way to reducing medical error and reducing the gross inefficiency of medical regulation. I certainly cannot correct this great system of corruption and injustice on my own. I need to accept responsibility for raising hell about the medical board's refusal to even acknowledge or consider the possibility that patients received unsafe medical care for months.
This is serious business, and we need (1) lawyers; (2) physicians; and even some on the medical boards themselves, to work with, meet with state legislatures and highlight the gross perversion of patient safety and dysregulation that is resulting from the medical board's one-direction manner of communication. A conversation includes at least four directions of communication. That is giving and taking by each person in a group of two. The Medical Boards are concerned legally about the communication they give to others. That is fine, and there is no reason to suggest that they should be placed in a situation where they would be legally jeapordized. However, The one-direction communication from the medical boards has overlooked a critical function of regulatory agencies, the ability to listen. When medical boards pre-judge, based on their prejudices regarding matters of patient safety, it is a fundamental failing of the medical board's mission and purpose. Their mission is to protect the public and ensure qualified doctors are practicing. Most reasonable persons would not likely suggest there is wrong in such a noble aim. However, when the medical board refuses to accept additional information to consider as part of their decision making processes, they are making themselves ignorant of what has occured in reality. The Boards are probably, largely oblivious to this secondary to the position of authority that they wield over doctors. Thankfully, I have no family to support, or I would have become complacent with the patient harm long ago. When one has children to feed, lying about patient care isn't so bad; at least that it what I have gathered by working with people that are placed in situations where they are compelled to lie. This may sound unbelievable to many persons. Please, let me ask you to consider for a moment whether you know with certainty, that all residency programs are similar to the one that you trained at, and please ask yourself, if you know with certainty whether every program director in the country is honest and trustworthy like the program director that you worked for?
I have worked for amazing physicians. It boggles the mind the high level of professionalism that these doctors display. They aren't perfect, they are people, sometimes they say the wrong things, but the big picture, is that these doctors that I have worked for are training teams of other people to become respectable, competent physicians. Indeed, they are training others to become healthcare leaders like themselves.
Those with authority in healthcare do not always manifest the same characteristics of noble leadership as some of the exemplary physicians that I trained under. Nonetheless, the medical boards have rigid understanding of professionalism, and even when there is significant evidence to the contrary, they hold fast to their tiered ideology of expertise and along with that they equate: honesty, integrity, professionalism, ethics and patient safety. Yet, this is not how the world works in reality, and those outside the medical profession (Daniel Goleman, Social intelligence) have recognized that the profession is indeed unsafe and that the strict manner of tiered regulation is likely a contributing factor. In fact, Dr. Goleman, PhD suggests that medical education and medical regulation are even more rigid than the military. Dr. Goleman states that military recognizes the importance of information from front-line soldiers, and that the medical profession is regulated in a manner that is arcane and is very unsafe.
Medical Board members probably look at the high rate of medical error in the country and think, we better reprimand more doctors. Yet indiscriminate harassment of physicians whilst pardoning their own unprofessional actions, such as receiving a speeding ticket is not the answer. The answer to patient safety critically relies on knowledge of the events regarding patient care. I have worked with hundreds of physicians, thousands actually during my time in medicine. Only at one program did I witness reports of concerns about patient care go recklessly neglected. The State Medical Boards assume,... they assume that everyone under their regulation has done their job appropriately and that the more senior the academic title, the more honest the physician. Yet, a review of patient charts, a review of court audio recordings, a review of surgical operating room logs, and a review of the actual matters of patient care will verify that these assumptions having been and can be expected to continue to place patient care at risk.
The Rate of Medical Discipline has gone up in the country, but, the rate of medical error has not gone down accordingly. People ask where is the black box about patient care, similar to those that airplanes have. Well, the black of patient care is partly represented by the patient chart. Yet, instead of reviewing patient charts, the medical board has chosen to review the reports of the Program Director only. Most residency program directors are honest and do not lie under oath. However, the assumptions that the medical board makes, that all program directors are the same, and that all senior faculty are of a similar honesty and competency is, at least a couple of times in my state, the reason that state medical boards are committing fraud and also aiding and abetting doctors that wish to conceal negligence. The best manner is to prevent negligence. The next best thing is to admit and correct it as soon as it is identified.
The reality of medical negligence, is that at some Universities, it occurs, is reported, the reports are ignored, and it continues. Eventually, medical regulators at the national level are notified, a so-called whistleblower (Y.Vidal 2013 How to prevent a hospital from Killing You), and then those that ignored the reports of negligent patient care initially make specious claims to cover up the events. Without a Medical Regulator that is willing to listen and consider, and receive information, these lies about patient care have been, and likely will continue to be covered up, not corrected, and remediated, and will continue to put patients at risk. Yet, when a medical board can show the public a list of people it reprimands, or denies licenses to, there may be the illusion that effective regulation is taking place.
I am nobody important, but I recongize the importance of patients. Their medical care is important, their safety is important, and their lives are important. When medical regulation reprimands for the sake of reprimanding while neglecting to correct critical failings of patient safety, the public is left with what is effectively a sham regulatory system.
Please consider the
http://drsocial.org/forums/topic/337/va-scandal-a-congressional-repo
VA Scandal.
Service calls and I must leave.
Kind regards.
