From previews of the upcoming season of House, we know that he's in trouble again.
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| Curious Expeditions |
While doctors in the real world don't match up to Dr. House in many ways both good and bad, sometimes they mess up. But it's often very hard for patients to find out if their doctor has a skeleton in the closet... and not the one used to learn about the bones in our bodies.
If you live in New Jersey, where "House" is set, a good place to start is the Web
site of the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners. Other states release information on health care provider discipline to varying degrees. One catch is that a doctor, nurse or other provider who gets into trouble in one state can pull up stakes and move on down the road.
site of the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners. Other states release information on health care provider discipline to varying degrees. One catch is that a doctor, nurse or other provider who gets into trouble in one state can pull up stakes and move on down the road.
The federal government does maintain a National Practitioner Data Base. It is primarily intended for use by hospitals or others who need to check the background of a provider applying for a job. Some data, without doctor names, has been made available to the public.
Public Use File Closed
Oops, let me update that last line. Just recently the federal government blocked access to the public database. It seems that some people didn't like the fact that journalists were using the information to reveal breakdowns in the oversight of health care providers. On Sept. 15, 2011, three major journalism groups sent a letter of protest to the Obama Administration. The announcement by the Association of Health Care Journalists of its protest includes a link to a site where you can download a copy of the data that was removed from the HHS web site. The archive is hosted by the Investigative Reporters & Editors group.
Read more about disciplining doctors in “House, M.D.
vs. Reality”
A couple of references:
Weber, T., and C. Ornstein. “Dangerous Caregivers Missing from Federal
Database.” ProPublica.org, February 15, 2010. Available online at www.propublica.org/feature/federal-health-professional-disciplinary-database-remarkably-incomplete.
Wolfe, S., and A. Levine. “Hospitals Drop the Ball on Physician Oversight: Report on Under-Reporting to the National Practitioner Data Bank.” Public Citizen, May27, 2009. Available online at www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=585.
Wolfe, S., and A. Levine. “Hospitals Drop the Ball on Physician Oversight: Report on Under-Reporting to the National Practitioner Data Bank.” Public Citizen, May27, 2009. Available online at www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=585.
More references related to topics in "House, M.D. vs. Reality" available here.
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