Why the State Medical Boards are Responsible for Legalized Genocide.................

The first line of defense against preventable medical errors in the United States is the state medical boards. Their responsibility and obligation to the public is to protect patients by ensuring all physicians in the state are properly licensed and comply with the laws and state regulations pertaining to the practice of medicine.

The media reports preventable medical errors are the third leading cause of deaths in the USA. The figures reflect 1,000,000, and some even 1.5 million deaths per year, making deaths by the medical community number one in the USA which includes long term care, deaths by pharmaceuticals, mistakes and/or negligence by doctors and nurses. This is unacceptable and horrific considering the total amount of deaths exceeded in a 10 year period is more than all the wars the United States has participated in since 1775. The state medical boards are responsible for these deaths and can be compared to legalized genocide.

How does this happen? How can 1,000,000 people die each year without accountability? The Texas Medical Board is a strong example of how this happens nationally. Mark Bello, a retired trial attorney with over thirty three years of experience stated:

"The Texas Medical Board (TMB) is not required to disclose cases of medical malpractice when a doctor moves from another state. In fact, they are not required to look into cases. You read that correctly, the Texas Medical Board does not check to see if a doctor moving from another state has a track record of seriously injuring or killing patients. The responsibility to disclose malpractice cases rests solely on the doctor. If the doctor does not report his/her own medical negligence, patients are left in the dark. And, it gets better. Thanks to Governor Perry, if you are injured, or worse, it is nearly impossible to seek justice because the state tort reform severely reduces a doctor’s accountability for negligence. Feel safe now?
According to the TMB, all state medical boards have full access to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), which lists malpractice cases and disciplinary actions taken against doctors, but because the NPDB charges for queries it is rarely, if ever done. Why? Because it would cost the state an estimated $160,000 a year to check on every doctor licensed in the state. There you have it; in Texas, your life is not worth $160,000. Sadly, Texas has become a safe haven for dangerous doctors. They can erase previous harm done in another state, then avoid accountability for harm caused in the future. If you were a doctor with a history of committing malpractice, wouldn’t you move to Texas? Unfortunately for Texas, until anti-justice tort reformers are legislatively reversed these stories won’t stop".

State medical boards for the most part, are appointed by governors. Members are volunteer physicians and members of the public, for example, real estate brokers, individuals who own insurance companies, geologists, head hunters, attorneys and other members who do not have medical backgrounds or experience. The reason these people are appointed board members is simple. These positions are used as political favors by the governors and these positions are used to reward them for assisting the governors to win the elections. This is a way the governor repays them for their favors.

Examples of how the Texas Medical Board communicates with the public when concerns are directed to the board for deaths caused by doctors and the public demanding justice and accountability is shown in the correspondence spokeswoman Leigh Hopper sent to family members or verbally communicated via phone.

"We judge a doctor's guilt by their demeanor." This response is a blatant display of arrogance towards the public, which was given to Anna Mae Rooks and myself. We were told we would be able to attend the hearing, and the medical board lied to us because neither one of us received notice to attend.

Ms. Elizabeth LaBozetta also received a similar response from the Ohio Medical Board.

"I confronted them about my concrete evidence and asked why they still refused to take action against my surgeon. Their reply: "We don't have to take action. We do not owe any duty to any individual." Later she found out why the medical board did not owe any duty with a case she found, Warren v District of Columbia. Warren v. District of Columbia is an oft-quoted District of Columbia Court of Appeals case that held that the police did not owe a specific duty to provide police services to the plaintiffs based on the public duty doctrine.
Ms. LaBozetta also stated ," A top-level staff member at the Ohio State Medical Board tried to steal my best evidence after inviting me to bring it in for show-and-tell. After looking at each page she asked to take the stack to another room "to copy for their files" and carefully picked out and stole ALL the most incriminating pages, the ones she had taken the most interest in. I did not find out about the theft until I got home and was refiling my papers. Thankfully, I knew enough about how crooked these so-called protection agencies can be and had taken in only COPIES of my evidence--so that thief didn't get what she thought she did. And I phoned her to make sure she knew it."

There is a momentum of patient safety advocates and patient safety sites growing in our country. Many people believe that by passing more laws will decrease the collateral damage left behind the medical cartel. The first line of defense is not being addressed because the medical cartel made it impossible to penetrate the medical boards and hold them accountable for failing to do their job. When the first line of defense is not accountable for their actions any law passed to decrease injuries and deaths will not make a difference because the figures and deaths each year is increasing, not decreasing.

This is why state medical boards are responsible for legalized genocide in the USA.

Cilla Mitchell
A Texas nurse and US Army vet