Managing Partner
It is important to do your due diligence when choosing a doctor. After all, you are entrusting this individual with your wellbeing. When looking into a doctor’s background, you should determine whether he or she has a history of medical malpractice. If so, you should treat this as a possible red flag and consider seeking treatment from another practitioner. In this article, we explain how to research a doctor’s history of medical malpractice.
State Licensing Board
When researching your doctor’s history of malpractice, the first place you should start is the state licensing board. Every state has a board that grants and manages health care practitioner licenses. These boards also usually maintain information about disciplinary actions and medical malpractice cases. In New York, the Office of Professional Medical Conduct operates a search engine where you can research your doctor’s history of medical malpractice. In addition, you may research your doctor’s disciplinary information on the DocFinder physician directory, which is operated by the Administrators in Medicine organization.
However, when researching this issue, it is important to keep in mind that a patient can sue a doctor for any reason, so a single malpractice case against your doctor isn’t necessarily indicative of his or her fitness as a medical practitioner.
Court Records
Another place to research a doctor’s history is court records. In New York, you can access a doctor’s records through the state’s court webpage. In addition, the page provides an option to sign up for a tracking service for any open cases involving your doctor. However, to access case documents, you must submit a request to the county clerk or clerk of the court.
Physician Ratings
In addition to the above resources, you can research a doctor’s history of malpractice through organizations that rate physicians based on several factors. For example, you may search the website of the National Committee for Quality Assurance to obtain such information. One of the advantages of these types of resources is that they allow you to read about the experiences of real patients. In addition, your insurance provider might maintain a review and rating system for doctors in its network.
Online Search
Finally, it is often possible to research a doctor’s malpractice information by conducting a simple online search. An easy way to do so is to input your doctor’s name followed by relevant terms, such as “lawsuit,” “malpractice,” “complaint,” “suspension,” and “sanction.”
Contact a Long Island Medical Malpractice Attorney
If you are a medical malpractice victim, you should contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney today. At Dell & Dean, PLLC, our veteran attorneys assist medical malpractice victims with their legal needs throughout the state of New York. Please contact us as soon as possible to arrange a confidential and free consultation with one of our experienced medical malpractice attorneys.
