Protecting Doctors Against Unfair Treatment
The medical peer review process is supposed to be used to protect patients from doctors who present dangers to their health and safety. Unfortunately, it is often used to protect hospitals and doctors from competition and criticism, with catastrophic effects on the careers of physicians who temporarily or permanently lose their hospital privileges.
At the Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass, we have made a national name for ourselves defending physicians against sham peer review practices. For a free initial consultation with experienced physician advocate Jeffrey Grass, contact us today.
Learn to Recognize Sham Peer Review
While some medical peer review proceedings are initiated in response to legitimate concerns about a physician's standard of care, increasingly, these proceedings are initiated in bad faith. Sham peer review arises out of several factors, including but not limited to the following:
- Economic: A doctor is targeted for providing services that compete with the hospital or other doctors, or for declining to participate in economic ventures that benefit the hospital.
- Retaliatory: A doctor is targeted for raising concerns or "blowing the whistle" about the quality of care, the safety of patients or the competence of other practitioners at the hospital.
- Political and interpersonal: A doctor is targeted because he or she has differing political views or personal conflicts with administrators or other members of the hospital staff.
Sham medical peer review is often characterized by summary discipline with little to no basis in fact, accompanied by claims of psychological or personality issues on which basis the doctor is labeled a "disruptive physician."
Get Legal Representation From Day One
It is extremely important to contact an attorney as soon as you learn that you are a target for peer review. You may believe that because medical issues are at the core of the inquiry, you are qualified to represent yourself without a lawyer. In fact, these are legal proceedings with serious consequences, and it is very difficult to overturn the results in court.
For doctors whose specialties require that they have access to sophisticated equipment that is only available at certain hospitals, the threatened loss of hospital privileges can be immediately devastating. For all physicians, any sort of peer review can lead to placement in the National Practitioner Data Bank and potential license revocation proceedings.
Don't hesitate to contact us to discuss how we can defend you against medical peer review.
