Outrageous! Doctors Who Do Harm

Good physicians know the bad ones in their midst. Why don't they point fingers?

Look the Other Way

Robert Whitney of Attleboro, Massachusetts, suffered persistent and crippling stomach pain until his problem was finally diagnosed: During a hernia operation four years earlier, surgical mesh had been mistakenly attached to his bladder. The surgeon, Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez, was dunned $652,000 for that bit of malpractice, disciplined by his hospital and investigated by the state over the quality of care provided to seven other patients, two of whom died. In 2006 he surrendered his license to practice medicine in Massachusetts.

But by then, Veizaga-Mendez was plying his trade at the VA Medical Center in Marion, Illinois. Supervisors had called Massachusetts state licensing authorities for references -- but weren't warned about the physician's history. In November the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it was investigating whether Veizaga-Mendez was at fault in the deaths of ten patients, including a 50-year-old Air Force veteran who died after what was supposed to be a routine gallbladder operation.

One of medicine's most cherished commandments is "First, do no harm." Most doctors take this admonition to heart, but when it comes to those who fail to honor this promise, the medical establishment resorts to another, less noble commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of thy fellow physician."

No one knows how many chronically bad doctors are out there. But a recent survey of 1,600 physicians by Columbia University's Institute on Medicine as a Profession revealed that 46 percent of the doctors in the survey had witnessed "serious" medical errors by their colleagues without reporting them. This was true even though 93 percent said they realized they should turn such doctors in.

Compounding this problem are doctors who give their colleagues lenient treatment in state disciplinary proceedings. "Doctors say, 'There but for the grace of God go I. Do I want to take away this guy's livelihood?'" says Arthur Levin of the New York-based Center for Medical Consumers.

It doesn't help that consumers have so little information. Only 16 states tally all malpractice payouts made by doctors on public websites. Says Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen, a pro-consumer watchdog group: "There isn't an adequate system to catch these doctors after they've done one or two things, as opposed to just letting them go on and on."

In 2006 the state of Maryland employed only ten investigators to oversee 17,000 doctors, leading to a backlog of 400 cases. Complaints routinely take three years to resolve, a Baltimore Sun investigation showed. But even when doctors are sanctioned, they usually keep practicing. One Maryland physician continued to see patients after settling three malpractice claims in five years, including one involving a death. No information about his history turned up on the state's public database.

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