Iowa doctors receive confidential warnings
The Iowa Board of Medicine recently sent confidential letters of warning to a dozen Iowa physicians for issues ranging from surgical care to criminal behavior.
The board investigates more than 500 complaints every year, and when it decides not to take public disciplinary action against a doctor, it has the option of sending a confidential, non-disciplinary letter. Those letters typically are an expression of the board’s concern, and they may include a request – not an order – that the doctor take some form of corrective action, such as further education.
Confidential letters, in which the recipients and the underlying facts are kept secret by the board, are a frequently used, but largely unpublicized, tool of state licensing boards. In 2020, the Iowa Board of Medicine took public disciplinary action in 46 cases while issuing confidential letters of concerns in 65 cases.
In January, the board sent out seven confidential letters to doctors. Among them were letters related to a physician’s use of a female chaperone during examinations of female patients; a physician who used co-workers to obtain controlled substances; and a physician who made improper comments to a female patient, and failed to appropriately communicate with a patient, during a breast examination.
Read more: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/04/27/iowa-doctors-receive-confidential-warnings/