State Discipline of Physicians: Assessing State Medical Boards thruogh Case Studies

This report describes state medical boards' disciplinary processes, assessed measurement of disciplinary performance, and identified practices that medical boards believe effectively improve their functioning. Finding ways to assess medical boards' performance is important because states have given them a key role in safeguarding medical quality and patient safety. Medical boards' importance has become apparent again during the recent medical litigation crisis. Many other private and public efforts also attempt to protect quality, but all ultimately rely on medical boards to address practitioners who simply cannot or will not meet minimum standards. [106 PDF pages]