Written By Joanne Ceballos
Five
years ago, on September 1, 2010, one of the nine “Bradley” bills, House Bill
459, took effect in Delaware. Among
other things, this bill clarified the obligations of hospitals to report any disciplinary
action affecting a physician’s privileges, the obligations of law enforcement
to report unprofessional conduct by a physician, and that a physician’s failure
to report unprofessional conduct of another physician is itself unprofessional
conduct. Subsequent legislation
incorporated “failure to report” into the definition of “unprofessional
conduct” applicable to other health care professionals as well.
The
Delaware Division of Professional Regulation’s website includes links to lists
of physicians and nurses who have been publicly disciplined. The physician list dates back to 1963, the
nurse list back to 1990. As one might
expect, the number of physicians and nurses who were disciplined by their
respective professional boards increased dramatically beginning in 2010. With respect to physicians, prior to 2010 the
highest number of physicians disciplined by what was then the Board of Medical
Practice was 10 physicians in 2008. Of
the ten physicians disciplined that year, two of them had their licenses
revoked. In 2010, 15 physicians were
disciplined, and while no licenses were revoked in 2010, 12 physicians received
some type of suspension, including six emergency temporary suspensions. According the DPR’s list, from 1963 through
2009, a total of only 11 physicians (including Earl Bradley) had their licenses
suspended (although 24 licenses were revoked during the same time period, with
the highest number of revocations being 4 in 2007). Below are figures for physician disciplinary
actions for the period from 2011 to the present (the DPR last updated the
physician list on August 25, 2015):
|
Year
|
Physicians Disciplined
|
Suspensions
|
Revocations
|
|
2011
|
22
|
7
|
1
|
|
2012
|
23
|
5
|
2
|
|
2013
|
35
|
6
|
3
|
|
2014
|
34
|
3
|
4
|
|
2015
|
17
(to date)
|
1
|
2
|
As
illustrated above, in 2011 and 2012, the Board of Medical Licensure and
Discipline sanctioned double the number of physicians it had disciplined during
its former peak year of 2008, and three times as many physicians in 2013 and
2014 as it had in 2008. While the number
of suspensions increased more or less proportionately (the 12 suspensions
imposed in 2010 being somewhat of an aberration), the number of revocations did
not. Thus the figures indicate that
while more violations of the physician licensing statute and regulations are
being reported and investigated, there has not been a concomitant increase in
violations that merit the most serious sanction of revocation.
The
list of publicly disciplined nurses also shows a jump in the numbers beginning
in 2010. Prior to 2010, the highest
number of nurses publicly disciplined in a given year was 43 in 2005, with the
Board of Nursing suspending seven and revoking two licenses. After 2005, the number of disciplinary
actions declined steadily to 14 in 2009, when the Board revoked one license and
suspended one license. In 2010, the
Board disciplined about two and a half times as many nurses as it had in 2009,
suspending 16 of them and revoking 6 licenses.
The figures for the period from 2010 to the present are as follows (the DPR
last updated the nurse list on August 17, 2015):
|
Year
|
Nurses Disciplined
|
Suspensions[1]
|
Revocations
|
|
2010
|
39
|
16
|
6
|
|
2011
|
47
|
13
|
4
|
|
2012
|
68
|
14
|
4
|
|
2013
|
83
|
42
|
3
|
|
2014
|
68
|
26
|
0
|
|
2015
|
69
(to date)
|
17
|
0
|
While
the Board of Nursing had imposed at least one suspension every year from 1990
through 2009, the number of suspensions in proportion to the total number of
disciplinary actions in a given year was generally less than a third. In 2009, however, over 40 percent of the
sanctions imposed were suspensions, and half the sanctions imposed in 2013 were
suspensions. As with physicians,
however, the number of revocations did not increase proportionately to the
number of disciplinary actions.
The
tables above demonstrate that since the Bradley legislation was enacted, the total
number of disciplinary sanctions imposed on physicians and nurses was the
highest in 2013 (thus far). It remains to be seen whether the numbers
will level off or decline in the coming years.
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