The Lombardi Law Firm Blog

Part I - The Board of Medicine - Who is this surgeon?

Part I – The Board of Medicine

Today we begin this series laying out the progression of investigation by our office in wrong-site surgery cases. We’ve done the medical research and this allows us to interview and to act quickly when lawyers refer these types of cases. Clients who choose our office are provided with a look-see of the binder that holds the medical research we utilize in proving their case. In some cases acting quickly may make the difference between getting and not getting corrective surgery after an unauthorized surgical procedure. We don’t guarantee results but we’ve done our homework and know the medicine. We invite you to allow us to assist your client to litigate.

This post is for referring lawyers. So let’s begin by discussing just where to begin in a case where the wrong surgical site, wrong-procedure or wrong-patient is involved. For simplicity sake I’m going to select just one, the wrong surgical site. As we go along we’ll expand on the other two of the tripartite possible negligent acts. But for starters the surgical site selected by the surgeon will be the issue.

Initially we need the medical records from the facility along with the “time-out” rules that set standards for pre-surgery preparation intended to protect the patient. So while you’re busy doing the research and investigation, do yourself a favor and order the medical records and surgical suite-facility time-out rules.

The first topic we want to discuss will be that you’ll need two notebooks. One for the medical records, pleadings and discovery documents and the other for the research I’m going to give you. Before we get to the specifics, let’s learn about the captain of our surgical ship, the one who is supposed to be in control of OR-1.

We ask the question: Who is this surgeon I’m about the encounter? What is his/her specialty? Have they had problems with their medical license? Are they licensed in my state? Where did they go to medical school? How long have they been practicing?

It’s pretty easy now a days to get at least some information about the surgeon. In Iowa we simply access the Iowa Board of Medicine database through the Internet.

[ http://medicalboard.iowa.gov/ ] The main page has a link to Find A Physician, where you will click the link and then enter the doctor’s name. Searches can be performed by name, license number, specialty, specialty and town or just town.

The site does also allow you to find “your doctor in other participating AIM states”. Let’s search by last name. I entered “Jones” and there were 155 possible matching records out of 41,589 searched. You highlight your choice and click the “Show Licensing Details” button. The electronic card that appears is the Medical License Verification card.

The Medical License Verification card shows licensee’s name, license number, birth year, license type, license status, license issue date, license expiration date, specialty, address of business, city, state, zip code, where the medical diploma was issued from and the educational history.

Just below the basic biographical information is in red, “No Public Board Action Information on File” or else there is and you will be able to access the portable document formatted information. This is what you’re looking to evaluate. Has there been action by the state government for medical practices by this physician that warranted some type of board action? If so the specifics are pretty important to know.

Here is a card that appears on the site. I’ve redacted this doctor’s name and contact information to avoid unnecessary attention.

Data last updated on 08/06/2008

Return to the Iowa Home Page
Direct questions and comments about these results to
Iowa Board of Medicine
400 SW 8th Street, Suite C
Des Moines, IA 50309-4686
Phone (515) 281-5171
This Board's data has been searched 3478327 times since 12/11/1997

Now if there is board action that information should be saved to your electronic file as a pdf document and it will later be included in the notebooks. Information can consist of actions by the board charging the doctor with malfeasance or dereliction of duty, bad behavior not becoming of a doctor or practices that the board considers needing some type of retraining.

Settlement agreements are for the most part public and can be accessed. Some agreements require evaluation of skill levels, retraining, mentoring, re-learning, etc.  Doctor’s have certain levels of skills that at times need evaluation. It’s pretty unusual to find one physician still practicing medicine that is so incompetent that they don’t know their left from their right. But you never know. Doctor’s are first people and people get into all sorts of problems in their professions.

If there was more than one doctor in the surgical suite check them all out for Board action. And if there is something, then save it to your electronic file. 

This is only the beginning of our search for who we are dealing with. Tomorrow we’ll look for other sources that more specifically describe who it is we’re talking about.

Labels: medical negligence malpractice wrong site procedure patient