Tuesday, April 21, 2009 | 6:11 p.m.
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CARSON CITY – Nevada is disciplining problem doctors more frequently but remains below the national average for its number of disciplinary actions against physicians.
From 2004 to 2007, the state Board of Medical Examiners was among the bottom five states for disciplinary actions against physicians.
Public Citizen’s newest ranking, released this week, showed Nevada had improved to 32nd in the nation from 46th in 2007.
The report by Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe and Kate Resnevic said the state board took 20 serious disciplinary actions against its 5,591 physicians. That equates to a three-year average of 2.63 actions per 1,000 doctors from 2006 to 2008.
Louis Ling, executive director of the Board of Medical Examiners, said he was “very proud” of the state’s improvement, adding that the state is headed in the right direction.
The national average is 3.28 actions per 1,000 physicians.
Alaska is the toughest on its doctors, taking 6.54 disciplinary actions for every 1,000 doctors for the years 2006-2008. Minnesota was the lowest with a rate of 0.95.
“There is considerable evidence that most boards are under-disciplining physicians,” the authors of the report wrote.
The report considers the most serious disciplinary actions. It does not include fines and reprimands.
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