A Virginia General Assembly panel passed a resolution Tuesday to target bad doctors.
Introduced by Republican Del. Winsome Sears, the bill lowers the threshold of medical negligence, making it easier for the Virginia State Board of Medicine to punish incompetent health providers.
Current standards that call for disciplinary action against doctors in cases of "gross negligence" would be reduced to standards of "simple negligence."
Sears drafted the legislation with the help of state health officials and the Medical Society of Virginia after her interest in the issue was sparked by an article in The Virginian-Pilot.
"It's been a long, tedious process," said Virginia Medical Society lobbyist Ann Hughes. "We're 100 percent supportive of the bill."
Hughes said the unanimous approval by the House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee was a "glowing endorsement" of the bill, which now awaits a vote before the full House of Delegates.
"The Board needs to be getting to physicians that are giving trouble earlier on," said Pam Overstreet, communications director for theMedical Society of Virginia. The standard of disciplinary action "needs to be strengthened."
The Board of Medicine only issues "a handful" of license revocations each year, in contrast to the 33,000 licensed medical doctors in Virginia, according to Robert Nebiker, director of the Virginia Department of Health Professions.
Nebiker defined gross negligence as "something that would be shocking," such as the amputation of the wrong leg, or "a minor event that could result in an awful outcome."
The majority of doctors formally charged are sentenced to some form of probation. Other possible disciplinary actions include fines, corrective action, limitations on practicing privileges and license suspension or revocation.
The bill would raise the mandatory period between license revocation and reinstatement from one year to three years.
"We expect we are going to detect more cases" if the bill passes, Nebiker said.
Most of the 1,700 complaints received each year are filed by patients and family members, but "often have lower validity" than those filed by hospital administrators, who are required to report violations, she said.
The bill clarifies this requirement, stiffening the penalties for hospitals that fail to report instances of possible malpractice, by increasing the fine up to $25,000.
In addition, a "confidential consent" agreement would allow for certain violations to be dealt with privately, as opposed to a current policy of public hearings.
This provision would enable the Board "to take care of routine, minor violations," Nebiker said. "Anything that's serious would still be public and go through a lengthy legal process."
Operating on a priority system in which cases are heard according to severity, Board investigations typically respond to reports of substandard care, diversion of prescription drugs for illegal purposes, improper prescribing,improper advertising and unsanitary conditions, according to the Virginia Board of Medicine Web site.
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