Groups squabble over use of "enforcement" tag

The California Medical Assn. believes some accusations against physicians should not be publicly disclosed on the Web.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. July 9/16, 2001.

The California Medical Assn. is again sparring with the Medical Board of California over how the board displays disciplinary matters on the Internet.

At issue is use of the word "enforcement" on physician license listings on the board's Web site to delineate actions which include the filing of accusations.

The CMA opposes the designation and argues that the enforcement tag should be wiped away once discipline has been withdrawn or a court has stayed executing a board's disciplinary action.

"We consider this totally unfair. The effect of what they're doing is to make people suspicious of the physician," said Sandra Bressler, CMA's director of professional standards and quality of care.

At the board's July meeting, the association will request that the enforcement designation be removed.

But so far, the board maintains that it is doing nothing wrong.

"The board is posting information that is, in essence, public information," said Dave Thornton, the board's chief of enforcement.

Thornton said providing license status of doctors facing discipline gives patients information to help them make informed decisions. "It prompts the reader to look a little further," he said.

The two sides have squabbled over the enforcement term for a few years, Bressler said.

A doctor called the association after an employer failed to hire him because it thought the posting meant the doctor had been disciplined, she said. The association helped clear the matter, and the doctor got the job.

The association challenged the enforcement tag last month by filing a court brief supporting an anesthesiologist accused of negligence in the handling of two surgery patients. The medical board adopted an administrative law judge's decision to suspend the doctor's license for a year but to stay the order. The doctor petitioned the Superior Court in Sacramento, which temporarily put on hold any discipline. The case is still pending. [...]