• 03
  • May
    2011

New Jersey State Senator Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, has called for an increase in staffing at the state Board of Medical Examiners after a Senate Health Committee hearing on the lack of disciplinary action against doctors who have committed medical malpractice.

Senator Weinberg pointed out that the medical director position at the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners has been vacant for two years, and four of the nine positions on the malpractice-claim review board are also vacant. Also, a review of the board's history "reveals a short-staffed agency which doesn't necessarily pursue every allegation," Weinberg stated.

Dr. Sidney Wolfe, Director of Citizen Action, a citizen advocacy group, testified at the hearing that the Board of Medical Examiners - the agency that licenses doctors in New Jersey - is to blame for not disciplining doctors, even when multiple malpractice payments have been made for a single doctor's repeated errors.

Dr. Wolfe said that, between 1990 and 2009, 320 doctors were suspended or removed from hospitals for committing medical malpractice. But, more than half of those doctors, 183, were not disciplined by the state licensing board.

This lack of agency discipline against doctors who have committed medical malpractice allows them to continue practicing medicine, potentially putting more patients at risk of harm. In addition, if the Board of Medical Examiners takes no disciplinary action against a doctor, there may be no official record of the doctor's medical malpractice, even though a hospital or clinic determined that the doctor was temporarily or permanently unsafe or unable to treat patients.

By seeking greater oversight of the state's doctors through increased staffing at the Board of Medical Examiners, the New Jersey legislature is taking a step in the right direction to improve patient safety.

Source: Weinberg: More Staff Needed for N.J. Board That Oversees Doctors