Why You Must Investigate Doctors Before Choosing One

This news story not only shocks the conscious, but also hammers home the absolute importance of investigating doctors before choosing one.

Fortunately, this type of depraved conduct is rare among health care professionals. However, plenty of warning signs existed that should have directed patients away from this doctor. The doctor in this story made at least five medical malpractice payments in the past decade. One such payment is not necessarily a deal breaker, but when a doctor has made five malpractice payments in the last decade, to me that exhibits a pattern. I would avoid that doctor at all costs. Fortunately, such information is easy to access.

The Florida Department of Health maintains a website that provides important information on all licensed health care professionals, not only doctors. When you arrive at the webpage, click on the “Profile Search System” link and enter the name of the person you are investigating. Then click on the license number to access information describing the person’s credentials as a health care professional. You can check such things as board certification, license validity, criminal offenses and malpractice payments.

For more information on medical malpractice, visit my website.

Explore posts in the same categories: Medical & Nursing Malpractice

This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 3:06 pm and is filed under Medical & Nursing Malpractice. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.

2 Comments on “Why You Must Investigate Doctors Before Choosing One”

Chris Kluis Says:
February 6th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Art – completely agree; however there are some specialties where getting sued is a reality of practice. It’s more important to know if the lawsuits were frivolous or based on actual malpractice. My understanding is the 80/20 rule applies to malpractice 20% of doctors cause 80% malpractice.

Btw – you should pick a theme that suites you.
centralfloridalawyer Says:
February 6th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Chris, thanks for the comment. I should have explained the malpractice payments more fully. The only malpractice payments reported by the department are payments for amounts greater than $100,000. I do understand that some medical specialties are sued at a greater rate and that’s the cost of doing business. I also agree that 80% of malpractice is committed by 20% of doctors. That’s why this doctor’s record should sound alarm bells. Five payments of $100,000 or greater indicates he’s one of the 20%.

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