WASHINGTON, D.C. – State medical boards – which are supposed to stop dangerous doctors from practicing – are failing to protect the public from many doctors already known to have committed sexual misconduct, a groundbreaking Public Citizen study published today in PLOS ONE shows.
Seventy percent of U.S. physicians – 177 out of 253 – who had engaged in sexual misconduct that led to sanctions by hospitals or other health care organizations or a malpractice payment were not disciplined by state medical boards for their unethical behavior, according to the research.
The study is the first published that used information on physician sexual misconduct from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB).