Medical Malpractice News

Medical Board Launches New, Consumer-Friendly Web Site Address

SACRAMENTO—The Medical Board of California announced today a new, consumer-friendly, easy-to-remember Web site address. The new address will become a familiar part of the board's communications efforts to make the board better known to those who need to find it. The new address is www.caldocinfo.ca.gov.

"We are excited about this new change," commented Board President Hazem Chehabi, M.D. "This continues our important and strategic effort to do everything possible to fulfill the board's consumer protection mission by making it easier for consumers and others to find out about us, and to access our services."

The board's Web site was launched in 1997, and is used by the public, physicians, allied healthcare professionals, reporters, hospitals, credentialing organizations, insurance companies and many others. The board is averaging over 400,000 hits per month on its site. The most popular feature is its individual physician profiles, where the following information is available.

• If a person is licensed as a physician in California
  
• A physician's address of record
  
• The date a physician's license was issued, and the date it will expire if not renewed
  
• The medical school a physician graduated from, and year of graduation
  
• The status of a physician's license, e.g., renewed and current, revoked, retired, etc.
  
• If a physician has been formally accused of wrongdoing by the Medical Board
  
• If a physician has been disciplined by the Medical Board of California or the medical board of another state
  
• If a physician has been convicted of a felony, reported to the board after Jan. 3, 1991
  
• Malpractice judgments or arbitration awards reported to the board after Jan. 1, 1993
  
• Any hospital disciplinary actions that resulted in the termination or revocation of a physician's hospital staff privileges for a medical disciplinary cause or reason reported to the board after Jan. 1, 1995
  
• Malpractice settlements within a 10-year period – when three or more if a physician is in a low-risk specialty, and when four or more if a physician is in a high-risk specialty – reported to the board after Jan. 1, 2003

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	Did You Know?
	Drug-switching practices happen and are very dangerous Another public-spirited drug giant, Merck, was forced to pay a settlement of $1.9 million to 17 states in 1995 for drug-switching practices involving its Medco subsidiary. Medco pharmacists, who had given excessively favorable treatment to Merck products, were thereafter required to reveal their Merck connection to their customers.