What would you do if you could look up your medical provider to determine whether he or she had ever committed medical malpractice? Would you utilize the service? If the information were readily available, many people would. Unfortunately, in Arkansas, such information is not readily available to the public.
Other states have much more transparency when it comes to the medical providers licensed to perform services in those states. For example, in North Carolina, the public now has access to information related to “malpractice settlements or judgments and criminal records for its 35,000 licensed physicians and physician assistants,” according to the Raleigh News & Observer.
The information available includes “malpractice payments, misdemeanor and felony convictions, hospital suspensions and discipline by medical boards in other states.” Obviously, this transparency is opposed by doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies, as well as by the defense bar.
The new addition to the Board’s website is in response to a new law enacted by the North Carolina legislature, which provides for the specific publication of settlements made after May 1, 2008, that exceed $75,000 and malpractice judgments entered on or after December 1, 2002.
Perhaps Arkansas will eventually follow suit in order to protect its citizens from the negligence of medical providers who have faced previous allegations of malpractice. Certainly, allegations of malpractice and the subsequent settlement that a provider might enter into are not the same as a finding of fault, but at the very least, it would give the consumer the discretion to choose for himself whether to entrust his health to a provider who has been questioned by others in the past.
The Brad Hendricks Law Firm Blog 