Have you filed complaint against a Dr?

[ORMom2Four]

Have you or do you know anyone who has filed a formal complaint to the medical board against a doctor?

I am in the process of writing a letter to file a formal complaint to the Oregon medical board against the anesthesiologist who cared for me during the delivery of my twins.

Just wondering what to expect after I file.

 

[Acklander]

I once had a Dr. who made a Major mistake during a minor surgical procedure. The new Dr (who did all the repair work from the mistake) talked to me about filing the complaint. (New Dr. had 2 or 3 other patients who he was doing repair work on, who had used my old Dr as well.) New Dr. filled out all the paper work but needed my permission to forward the records on to the agency. He gave them my phone number in case they had any questions. The agency never called me, and my Old Dr. is still practicing medicine so not sure if anything was done other than the report sent.

 

[Nette]

I'd kind of like to know this too. I recently had a doctor send blood off for some genetic tests that I declined. I only know about it because my insurance company sent me a statement saying that the claim was denied. Never got a bill from the doctor or lab. What kind of scam is that? What does the lab now know about me that I don't know?

 

[pixiefairy]

Keep us updated! Wish I'd made a more formal complaint against my old obgyn. I did send a letter and make a formal statement to the office he worked out of. The bad thing was that the office manager agreed with me. So..they KNEW that he was a jerk...and he'd had other complaints.

 

[lovesmurfs]

First of all

I work for a medical association for physicians and board certification. My recommendation would be to first go through the hospital's ethical complaint process, and take the information from that process to strengthen your case to the medical board.

You'll need to be as objective as possible, and follow the rules for filing complaints set forth by the state board. Get familiar with your state's medical practice act and objectively review and document (documentation is important to a successful complaint) each area of the act that the physician violated.

Best wishes.

 

[DawnCt1]

Years ago,when DH was in medical school. He slammed his finger and ended up with a hematoma under the nail.Very painful but easy to treat. The doc drills a small hole in the nail with a little drill made for that purpose and lets the blood out. It took 30 seconds. Later we got a balance on the bill of $300. Our insurance company had already paid $500. He billed it as "treatment of a fracture". The office did nothing to resolve it when I called, so I notified the insurance company and the county medical association. They cancelled the bill and the "billing error". There was something to be said about the type of insurance that didn't cover everything except a small co pay. As consumers, we took notice of those things all the time. Now, no one sees a detailed bill.

 

[ORMom2Four]

First of all

I work for a medical association for physicians and board certification. My recommendation would be to first go through the hospital's ethical complaint process, and take the information from that process to strengthen your case to the medical board.

You'll need to be as objective as possible, and follow the rules for filing complaints set forth by the state board. Get familiar with your state's medical practice act and objectively review and document (documentation is important to a successful complaint) each area of the act that the physician violated.

Best wishes.

Thanks for the advice. Should I get my hospital records asap? Dh was afraid they would "disappear" because the hospital was afraid of a lawsuit. We have talked to a lawyer but have decided not persue that avenue. We don't want money, we just don't want this guy to hurt anyone else (he made a medical mistake that could have cost me my life).

 

[lovesmurfs]

Thanks for the advice. Should I get my hospital records asap? Dh was afraid they would "disappear" because the hospital was afraid of a lawsuit. We have talked to a lawyer but have decided not persue that avenue. We don't want money, we just don't want this guy to hurt anyone else (he made a medical mistake that could have cost me my life).

I would definitely get copies any documentation that pertains to your care in the hospital to include as your complaint. There were several occasions in which our ethics committee (who are peers and familiar with proper practice) would not find a violation based on the specific allegations of the patient, but would find other, more serious violations based on the case documentation submitted by the patient or by the physician in rebuttal to the initial complaint.

Each hospital does have a disciplinary process within the facility, which could cause the physician to lose his/her privileges at the hospital -- you'll want to find out the process for this -- I'd mentioned this in my initial post.

 

[daughtersrus]

Thanks for the advice. Should I get my hospital records asap? Dh was afraid they would "disappear" because the hospital was afraid of a lawsuit. We have talked to a lawyer but have decided not persue that avenue. We don't want money, we just don't want this guy to hurt anyone else (he made a medical mistake that could have cost me my life).

I also suggest getting them right away.

Several years ago my DD had bilateral cataract surgery. Long story short, my DD almost died because of errors that were made(this was at a major children's hospital in Chicago and the doctor is now chief of staff ) She ended up with a strep-pneumococcal infection inside of her eyeball that kept breeding and multiplying because the incision had healed shut.

We were in the process of looking for a diagnosis for DD so we always have all of her records sent to her pediatrician (so that we would have them all in one place).

At the time, we were in shock and honestly thought that it was a freak accident that DD got the infection so we continued to see the doctor.

It wasn't until we took DD to see her ENT that he made a comment that caused us to question what happened.

I called the Ped Ophth to request a written prescription for glasses so that we could get some cute ones instead of the ugly ones they gave her in the hospital. I was getting a run-around and no one would call me back. After about 2 weeks of this, the receptionist told me that Dr. M would not give me a prescription because we were negligent parents and never brought DD back for any check ups. She said that the last time Dr M. saw her was the day of the surgery. I tried to explain to them that was not possible because we had over $100,000 in medical bills from the post-op infection as well as several contact lenses for the undamaged eye. The receptionist said that I needed to take it up with billing because they have no record of any of that.

I promptly called the medical records dept for the doctor as well as the hospital and requested them all to be sent to me. Sure enough, everything was gone! The operative report for the damaged eye was also changed. Little did any of them know that our pediatrician already had the copies.

In the end, we were not able to collect damages because DD was already disabled so loosing the vision in one eye won't cause a "loss of income".

The really scaring part is that not only did the doctor's office loose the records, but all of the records from the hospital were lost as well. On top of all of that, this doctor is now the head of Ophthalmology at this hospital. I always wonder if she still claims never to have a patient suffer from a post-op infection.

For us, it was the anesthesiologist that wanted to cancel the surgery (it was obvious that DD had an upper respiratory infection) but the Ophth insisted that it was not elective and that we had to proceed. (He indicated in his notes that he was against the surgery. Of course, we didn't know the details of this until we read the notes. I'm sure he was covering himself.) She assured us that every precaution would be taken but yet failed to treat the URI with anything other than moist air for the cough. If the surgery had been postponed (they were 2 days apart instead of at least 2 weeks apart which is standard) or given an antibiotic, she would be able to see out of both eyes and not need to wear a prosthesis.

 

[cm8]

I also suggest getting them right away.

Several years ago my DD had bilateral cataract surgery. Long story short, my DD almost died because of errors that were made(this was at a major children's hospital in Chicago and the doctor is now chief of staff ) She ended up with a strep-pneumococcal infection inside of her eyeball that kept breeding and multiplying because the incision had healed shut.

We were in the process of looking for a diagnosis for DD so we always have all of her records sent to her pediatrician (so that we would have them all in one place).

At the time, we were in shock and honestly thought that it was a freak accident that DD got the infection so we continued to see the doctor.

It wasn't until we took DD to see her ENT that he made a comment that caused us to question what happened.

I called the Ped Ophth to request a written prescription for glasses so that we could get some cute ones instead of the ugly ones they gave her in the hospital. I was getting a run-around and no one would call me back. After about 2 weeks of this, the receptionist told me that Dr. M would not give me a prescription because we were negligent parents and never brought DD back for any check ups. She said that the last time Dr M. saw her was the day of the surgery. I tried to explain to them that was not possible because we had over $100,000 in medical bills from the post-op infection as well as several contact lenses for the undamaged eye. The receptionist said that I needed to take it up with billing because they have no record of any of that.

I promptly called the medical records dept for the doctor as well as the hospital and requested them all to be sent to me. Sure enough, everything was gone! The operative report for the damaged eye was also changed. Little did any of them know that our pediatrician already had the copies.

In the end, we were not able to collect damages because DD was already disabled so loosing the vision in one eye won't cause a "loss of income".

The really scaring part is that not only did the doctor's office loose the records, but all of the records from the hospital were lost as well. On top of all of that, this doctor is now the head of Ophthalmology at this hospital. I always wonder if she still claims never to have a patient suffer from a post-op infection.

For us, it was the anesthesiologist that wanted to cancel the surgery (it was obvious that DD had an upper respiratory infection) but the Ophth insisted that it was not elective and that we had to proceed. (He indicated in his notes that he was against the surgery. Of course, we didn't know the details of this until we read the notes. I'm sure he was covering himself.) She assured us that every precaution would be taken but yet failed to treat the URI with anything other than moist air for the cough. If the surgery had been postponed (they were 2 days apart instead of at least 2 weeks apart which is standard) or given an antibiotic, she would be able to see out of both eyes and not need to wear a prosthesis.

,