I expect my life & career would have gone a lot smoother if I had done exactly that – if I had rolled over and gone back to sleep. I’m the poster-child for WHY most doctors keep their heads down and their mouths shut.

My enemies were stupid. I was “only” fired when I blew the whistle. So I’m not in the NPDB. But I have spoken to a number of physicians who say they’ve been the victims of “bad-faith peer review” (many targeted by competitors and/or for whistle-blowing). And they ALL say the same thing:

With regards to the NPDB, if you have a job and manage to keep it despite disciplinary action (and it’s actually MORE about being listed because of a hospital’s disciplinary action rather than because you’ve been successfully sued) . . . or you are self-employed . . . and you don’t move . . . there’s not a whole lot to worry about.

BUT (very seriously) if you lose your job, getting another one – anywhere – is a whole nuther story. Being in the NPDB can be the kiss of death.

Peer review is supposed to be about correcting behaviors and rehabilitating doctors – if these things can, in fact, be done. Too often it is used as a weapon to crush and destroy very good people.

And the “immunity” it enjoys often serves to protect the WRONG people.

And unless you can point to a case showing the immunity has been put aside that’s a weak excuse. And if there is, then have your lobbyists strengthen it.

These are some pretty lame reasons for clamming up when you know a physician shouldn’t be practicing.

It’s the REASON I’m in the blogosphere!

My practice was decimated, I was black-balled, and I fell into an on-going legal black hole – where wrong is right and down is up – because every law we have favors the hospitals/suits that pull these stunts.

Doctors have little to no recourse. The establishment KNOWS it – and they have turned a deaf ear!

I’ve been treated like dirt for even trying to fight back – called every name in the book – even in the medical blogosphere.

The general public has NO CLUE as to what really going on in medicine. Hell, many doctors don’t. Not really. Most live in their won bubbles. It’s a big part of what’s wrong.

Try the following post on for size. Read the links in it. Then tell me I don’t have the right to be angry & bitter about a system that DOES NOT WORK: http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2009/06/north-carolina-medical-board-needs-to.html

Here’s another link: http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=147405

And another one: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03299/234499.stm

The medical blogosphere is LATE to the peer review party.