South Carolina ponders openness of charges against doctors

Medical board proceedings in the state will be kept secret until the board makes a final decision.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. April 18, 2005.

South Carolina legislators and the state's Supreme Court will determine how much access the public will have to disciplinary cases involving physicians.

On March 1, the South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners approved a proposal to make formal charges against doctors available to the public. The Legislature must adopt the proposed changes for them to take effect. Lawmakers likely will consider the plan next year, the second half of the legislative session.

Meanwhile, on March 15 the South Carolina Supreme Court heard arguments in a case in which a newspaper claimed that an administrative law court blocked public access to disciplinary actions against a doctor. The state's high court will decide if the administrative law court's proceedings on physician discipline should be open to the public.

South Carolina joins other states that have grappled with the issue of public disclosure of disciplinary cases of doctors.

Physicians and medical societies in some states have said doctors should get due process before accusations are listed publicly. They argue that patients could get the wrong impression from charges posted online before a medical board decides a case.

For example, a few years ago, some medical groups fought the Virginia Board of Medicine's proposal to list unfounded complaints against doctors on its Web site. But once disclaimers were added to the Web page, concerns faded, and most doctors became resigned to the practice.

Some South Carolina medical leaders say they don't oppose public access to physician discipline as long as the physician has been given a chance to present his or her side of the story. They say the public should know when a final decision on disciplinary action is made.