Lab Coat Lunacy: I't Been Quite a Year for Medical Maniacs, Hasn't It?

[K Patrick McDonald]

Drs. Hasan, Eroshevich, Kapoor, Murray, Thompson & Bishop:

Sound Like a Medical Clinic We Should Trust?

A woman calmly pulls a gun from her purse and opens fire on six colleagues sitting around a table at a staff meeting. A man on a military base murders 13 people who wear the same uniform he does. Three Los Angeles professionals ply their celebrity clients with powerful drugs under questionable circumstances using fake names, and some very famous entertainers now lay dead. Twin, 53-year old brothers in Ohio get long prison terms for years of child molestation. A man in Oklahoma City sitting in the kitchen picks up a steak-knife and starts chopping up his 9-year old son, all as his wife watches in horror. What do these individuals have in common? Well, they all have achieved the highest level of medical degrees to be found on planet earth, and their names are now documented at the National Practitioner Data Bank, viewed as "Dangerous" or "Questionable" by the Health Research Group. They also join the 2,490 other doctors who found it impossible to remain on the right side of the law in the last 12 months alone.* The only aspect of the stunning volume of physician crime more despicable than the acts themselves, is the outright enabling of it by their otherwise ethical peers, and state medical boards, who often turn a blind eye toward bizarre behavior until it's far too late. So what can a reasonably intelligent citizen do, to ensure the safety of his or her family? Fortunately, the internet is a modern miracle. It is now, in the year 2010, a simple task to quickly determine who your state and federal representatives are, and which ones sit on health-related committees. Each of our senators and representatives has office staff, whose function it is to read incoming mail. Let them know that you believe physician discipline histories need to be transparent to all Americans. Tell them anything less is not acceptable. Remind them that it is entirely ridiculous that – as the situation stands now – citizens can learn far more about the reputation of their auto mechanic than their heart surgeon. By what stretch of imagination does that make sense? Finally, you might care to mention this: Any "health care reform" discussion within the hallowed halls of legislation, that fails to include the embarrassing reality of physician misbehavior, is not merely impotent.  It is immoral. You all be safe out there. Visit Medical Maniacs.com. Order a copy of America's Dumbest Doctors and give it to someone you care about. And whatever you do, never, ever allow someone in a lab coat to trump your innate common sense. * compilations, U.S. Department of Justice, FBI & state attorneys general annual reports; 48 state medical quality assurance boards, agenda data