ACEP Now offers real-time clinical news, news from the American College of Emergency Physicians, and news on practice trends and health care reform for the emergency medicine physician. ACEP Now is an official publication of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
— Read on www.acepnow.com/article/emergency-physician-with-depression-chronicles-her-10-year-fight-to-keep-her-license/
Disrupted Physician 
The Case for one Federal Medical Board to Replace Failed State Boards
When Allen Sossan caused the unnecessary death of my friend’s mother, from repetitious and unnecessary spinal procedures, the South Dakota Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners never responded to our (and others’) complaint letters in 2012…
In fact, the South Dakota Foundation for Medical Care, the state’s quality improvement organization, conducted a peer review of our complaints and found “no quality of care concerns.”
Allan Sossan continued to operate, fully licensed, and harm patients until November 2013 when he lost a $933,835 malpractice case in Yankton SD – finally losing his privileges to operate and returning to Iran…
Allen Sossan never had his license revoked or suspended by the SD medical board. He was never reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank. He simply let his license lapse and has a “clean slate” to this day…
This medical board failed to protect the people of South Dakota from physician harm and death.
Other states’ medical boards have similarly protected dangerous physicians and shielded them from public view. And the Federation of State Medical Boards, like the Joint Commission, is largely a voluntary “coordinator” without enforcement teeth. Both are more professional social clubs than advocates for patient safety…
The Federal Aviation Administration and other federal agencies are largely run by professionals, subject to ethical standards that distance them from state and corporate politics. A Federal Medical Board would similarly be immune to influence from corporate healthcare or state medical and political interests…
Pilot certification is regulated by the FAA using national examinations. Since physicians already take national examinations (FLEX and specialty boards), why not also have one certification agency for all 50 states? Why should one state have a different standard to practice medicine than another? A single federal process would reclaim the public’s trust in certifying physicians to practice safe medicine…
With access to other federal resources (Immigration, Justice, FBI, CMS, etc.) there would be no need for a National Practitioner Data Bank, already shown to be largely ineffective in promoting patient safety. No dangerous physician would be able to hide out in another state. At the same time, no physician would be shammed by a state medical board’s often politically-inspired “gotcha” tactics…
I suspect opponents of any Federal Medical Board will be the very groups who now control state boards for their own ends – such as protecting their “favorite” physicians, getting rid of physicians who advocate for patients, using the boards as “enforcers” of corporate discipline, and allowing governors to reward politically-correct physicians with board appointments…
LikeLike