Most Inactive Physicians Retain Licenses, Return To Practice Without Competency

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In general,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, Freed notes, "few states have any mechanism to assess the competency of clinically inactive physicians who return to active practice."
The research was funded by a grant from the American Board of Pediatrics Foundation.
Most Inactive Physicians Retain Licenses, Return To Practice Without Competency Review
            
            
                        
            
            
            
What can be done? The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) formed a committee that has developed a model policy for state regulations that would require physicians to demonstrate their continuing competence periodically. This policy, currently in draft form, would include a self-evaluation; demonstration of competence in medical knowledge, patient care and other areas; and demonstration for accountability for performance in practice.
In the other study, the researchers conducted telephone interviews with all 64 state allopathic and osteopathic medical licensing boards in the United States. They found:
In one of the new studies, researchers sent a questionnaire by mail to pediatricians. Of the more than 4,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login,600 pediatricians who responded, about 12 percent indicated they had periods of clinical inactivity of at least a year. Women were most likely to cite caring for their children as a reason for an absence,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, while men most often had made a career change to a non-clinical position.
In addition to Freed, authors of the study in which state boards were surveyed were Kelly M. Dunham, M.P.P. and Leah Abraham, B.A., of the CHEAR Unit. Co-authors of the paper in which physicians were surveyed were Dunham and Kara E. Switalski, also of the CHEAR Unit. The Research Advisory Committee of the American Board of Pediatrics co-authored both papers.
"Studies have shown that even once-competent physicians may be at risk of losing diagnostic and procedural skills during a period of inactivity,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login," says Gary L. Freed, M.D., M.P.H., the lead author of a pair of studies in the new issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Because of the lack of regulation, patient safety could be compromised in some instances, say researchers at the University of Michigan Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit and the American Board of Pediatrics.
For state licensing boards to implement these recommendations, state legislatures must give the authority to the boards to enact the rules. Still, the researchers note,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, state medical boards should consider the FSMB recommendations as a way of ensuring that physicians returning to active status are fully competent to treat patients.
"States must begin to address this issue," says Freed, chief of the Division of General Pediatrics and director of the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit at the U-M Health System. "The public deserves no less."
    34 percent of state licensing boards query physicians about their clinical activity when they first receive their licenses and when they renew.
    Most states allow physicians to hold or renew an active license, even though they may not have cared for a patient in years.
    Only the District of Columbia requires a minimum number of patient visits to maintain an active license.
    Five states allow physicians with inactive licenses to practice medicine, while seven states allow physicians with retired licenses to practice.