Failing grades: Patients at risk

Nationwide report card reflects faulty framework, dangerous gaps in most states.

In Minnesota, state law affords zero tolerance for doctors who are convicted of felony sex offenses: They are banned from practicing medicine. In 36 other states, no such ban exists.

In Iowa, state law says women get half the seats on the board that licenses and disciplines physicians. But in most states men control medical boards, and only half the states give consumers a strong voice in deciding whether doctors who have hurt patients should be allowed to stay in practice.

In Texas, state law demands that doctors undergo rigorous criminal background checks before they’re licensed and while they’re practicing too. But 14 states still do not require criminal checks before giving a license to someone who can prescribe powerful drugs and ask patients to strip down and submit to being touched.

In every state, patient protection is supposed to be the prime directive when it comes to licensing and disciplining doctors. But a 50-state examination found that only a few states have anything close to a comprehensive set of laws that put patients first. read more »

Sexual Harassment Is Rampant in Health Care. Here’s How to Stop It.

Many factors make an organization prone to sexual harassment: a hierarchical structure, a male-dominated environment, and a climate that tolerates transgressions — particularly when they are committed by those with power. Medicine has all three of these elements. And academic medicine, compared to other scientific fields, has the highest incidence of gender and sexual harassment. Thirty to seventy percent of female physicians and as many as half of female medical students report being sexually harassed. read more »