Fingerprint all the physicians

[renodoc]

A "criminal background check" bill is steaming through our legislature now. They want all of us to submit even if we've been in practice for 20 years.

Is this silly or am I silly for thinking it is? Feels like a slap in the face, as there is a certain modicum of trust that one has with his physician that an FBI check isn't going to change one iota. I could harm every patient I see every day if I were a deranged person.

[hetron]

[ QUOTE ]
A "criminal background check" bill is steaming through our legislature now. They want all of us to submit even if we've been in practice for 20 years.

Is this silly or am I silly for thinking it is? Feels like a slap in the face, as there is a certain modicum of trust that one has with his physician that an FBI check isn't going to change one iota. I could harm every patient I see every day if I were a deranged person.

[/ QUOTE ]

It is redundant. Most state licensing boards do a background check before issuing a medical license. I don't see what this legislation would accomplish that the background check wouldn't.

[Utah]

I did some healthcare consulting last year and I worked on an insurance providers credentialing system (the process where doctors or groups get qualified). You would be shocked at how many dangerous doctors are out there who have convictions from child pornography to heavy drug use.

I dont know if the bill is a good idea, but there are a lot of bad doctors out there.

[johnc]

Background checks and fingerprinting in the professional realm really isn't anything new. Police officers are required to undergo extensive background checks, interviews, ect. It really goes hand in hand with the trust level the public needs to have in that professional. Healthcare professionals obviously don't need that intense of a going over but I believe it to a prudent measure to perform background checks and finger printing ( California requires fingerprinting).
However,as a side note, given the recent histeria regarding the war on terrorism, the sudden "need" for background checks on physicians of all people leads one to wonder what they are really looking for or think they might find.

[renodoc]

[ QUOTE ]
It is redundant. Most state licensing boards do a background check before issuing a medical license. I don't see what this legislation would accomplish that the background check wouldn't.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not exactly. In California, I had to be fingerprinted. In the other three states I've been licensed in, I haven't. They all ask yes/no questions about convictions, arrests, do you make your child support payments blah blah blah, but apparently only half the states takes your prints and run em through the FBI database.

Maybe it makes sense, I don't know what the yield will be. But what are you going to do with the data? If Dr. X has been practicing in the community for 20 years and is everyone's favorite Marcus Welby, what do you do when his DUI conviction from college shows up on the background check? Take his license? Run him through the press? Ugly.

Let em start with the new applicants if they want to.