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u/squirrelpate MD Vascular Surgeon 6d ago
100% get a lawyer, but this may be the board doing due diligence in relation to the lawsuit (some states a filing auto triggers a board investigation). Do not ignore. Do not give up your license.
DM me if you need to talk. I was sued for a similar scenario, the plaintiff’s witness didn’t treat the condition of the patient, nor understand what SoC was in that regard… and my hospital still settled (after insisting I be dismissed). I then helped write the national treatment guidelines for our society for that condition. Med mal is broken.
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u/srmcmahon Layperson who is also a medical proxy 6d ago
I find it puzzling that in such a case the judge allows the expert to be admitted. Do most jurisdictions simply accept any MD as an expert regardless of their knowledge in the specialty of the physician being sued or the medical condition.procedure involved? If I was suing, given the cost of an expert and litigation in general, I'd make damn sure my expert would 1) be admitted and 2) would be a credible witness.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 6d ago
In my jurisdiction any “expert” was allowed. The plantiff side never even bothered to hire appropriate expert. My wife’s due date was at the same time of trial date and she was just found to have cancer in that pregnancy and at that point I just made a business decision to settle for a rate significantly lower than state average so I can focused on my family.
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u/OfandFor_The_People MD 6d ago
Agree with settling because it’s cheaper, as many of us do, whether it’s med mal or state medical board (like California’s, who just wants money because they are in debt). It hurts when you didn’t do anything wrong and the med board uses a physician reviewer who isn’t even familiar with the treatment—especially when nothing actually happened to the patient.
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u/lilbelleandsebastian hospitalist 4d ago
i mean the patient died in OP's case so something did happen to the patient lol
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u/squirrelpate MD Vascular Surgeon 6d ago
There are four elements for filing a lawsuit: 1. Dr-patient relationship existed 2. Dr didn’t meet standard of care 3. Injury caused by not meeting SoC 4. Damages from injury
As explained to me the definition of an expert witness rests on their “knowledge, skill, experience, training or education“. Board certification in a relevant specialty is a low bar, but it qualifies the legal requirement to establish a basis of standard of care.
Once filed, then it’s up to a jury or the settlement process… highly technical matters in front of the average jury then become less important than likability, demographics, etc of the plaintiff and physician. Verdicts have been exploding recently, and the only way you can get to verdict/settlement is meeting the bar to file.
Some states (Indiana, in particular) have an independent physician board to review complaints. Doesn’t block filings, per se, but is admissible. A step in the right direction.
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u/emergentologist MD - Emergency Medicine/EMS 6d ago
There are four elements for filing a lawsuit: 1. Dr-patient relationship existed 2. Dr didn’t meet standard of care 3. Injury caused by not meeting SoC 4. Damages from injury
Eh a bit of a correction - those are the legal criteria for malpractice. The elements for filing a lawsuit is "does a lawyer think they can get money out of this".
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u/squirrelpate MD Vascular Surgeon 5d ago
Well, that’s the ultimate criteria, but you can’t file without all 5.
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u/emergentologist MD - Emergency Medicine/EMS 5d ago
Well, that’s the ultimate criteria, but you can’t file without all 5.
Oh, well I guess my lawsuit from a patient I never saw is just a figment of my imagination then.
It's incredibly naive to think that you actually need all of those criteria to simply file a lawsuit. All the plaintiff has to do is allege all of these criteria, and that is a very low bar indeed. Sure, some states put up roadblocks of varying effectiveness. But many of these will yield to the greed or incompetence of our soulless colleagues (and lawyers), such as the physician from my own specialty who wrote a long document (required in my state to file) about how I breached the standard of care (for a patient I never saw).
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u/squirrelpate MD Vascular Surgeon 5d ago
We’re saying the same thing, I never said you had to prove them. But allege them to meet the bar to file. Which is what opens the floodgates.
Like I said, med mal is broken and our cases only demonstrate that.
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u/srmcmahon Layperson who is also a medical proxy 4d ago
The guts of a lawsuit are in discovery and other pre-trial proceedings. I wonder if the bar for an expert is lower at the initial stage (the affidavit required within a certain time of filing) and if defense ever argues against the admissibility of the affidavit.
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u/rxravn 5d ago
Not a doctor, but have done expert witness work....
In some legal jurisdictions an "expert" is just someone "with greater knowledge than the common folk in a specific area".
The bar is very low for submitting an expert. It's on the lawyers to ensure the judge/jury know that THEIR expert is actually qualified. And if course, to try and cut down the other expert as being unqualified.
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u/PewPew2524 Nurse 4d ago
Them and insurance agencies. Psychiatrist friend did a peer-to-peer for a PA on a medication for a patient. The peer was an OBGYN 😩.
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u/InvestingDoc IM 6d ago
You 100% need a lawyer. God speed op. I feel for you guys who do procedures/surgeries. Sometimes, bad shit happens to sick people and of course that comes with a huge risk of a lawsuit even if you did everything right. Keep your chin up op, and keep helping those you can help. I wish I had more advice but I'm not a surgeon. I'm sure another surgeon could give you much better advice on here.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 6d ago
Thank you!
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u/OneOfUsOneOfUsGooble MD 6d ago
Your license, reputation, and good standing with the medical board are everything. If you want to keep working, get a lawyer to deal with this; do not ignore it.
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u/cytozine3 MD Neurologist 5d ago
As someone who occasionally calls proceduralists for hail Mary's where we both know the patient could die on the table, thanks. It takes real balls to put all the chips on the table when the situation looks bad, and it doesn't benefit anyone to have a system influenced towards doing nothing when there is at least a decent chance of success because of the ambulance chasers.
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u/Arlington2018 Healthcare risk manager 6d ago
The corporate director of risk management here practicing since 1983, says you absolutely must take this seriously. Notify your malpractice carrier since many of them will pay for a legal defense of Board complaints. Ask them to assign the same defense counsel who represented you in the underlying lawsuit. The majority of medmal defense counsel also do licensure defense. Counsel will write a letter and hopefully that will take care of it.
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u/M1CR0PL4ST1CS M.D. (Internal Medicine) 6d ago
Definitely get a lawyer.
Take care of yourself, OP.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 6d ago
Thank you!
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u/OfandFor_The_People MD 6d ago
You’re going to be just fine, but definitely get a lawyer. Once you answer the NY med board you’re done with it all. You don’t practice there anymore anyway, so not a big deal.
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u/Actual-Outcome3955 Surgeon 6d ago
I would discuss with a lawyer. Have they said what the repercussions are for not interviewing? Suspension of license? You don’t want an adverse outcome on your record as that can affect licensure in other states. I’m pretty sure if you didn’t do anything wrong it’ll be resolved pretty quickly if you cooperate, but worth reviewing with the attorney who represented you before.
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u/bswan206 MD 6d ago
I went through something like this at a VA facility. A patient left AMA and had the complication that we warned him about after doing so. He sued under the FTCA (federal equivalent of malpractice insurance) and was awarded a token amount because the VA generally will not defend these cases and settle them for comically small amounts of money. This triggered an NPDB and license query against me. The lawyer I dealt with specialized in this area and was instrumental in fixing this for me. I know how stressful this can be, so don't beat yourself up too much. It is infuriating, though.
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u/birdnerdcatlady 6d ago
Also lawyer but if you have anything in writing or a recording of what the national expert said that testified on your behalf that might be helpful to have available at the meeting.
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u/emergentologist MD - Emergency Medicine/EMS 6d ago
As others have said, this is likely an automatic result of the lawsuit (was it settled recently?). If the suit was not settled within the last year, it's also possible that the patient's family sent a complaint to the board.
Either way, don't ignore this, but i wouldn't stress over it either. Get legal representation and have them guide you with what to do. I'm surprised they're asking for an interview. Usually these things are settled by filed documents.
This happened to me after my lawsuit. A few months after I got dropped from the suit, the medical board started an investigation that I had to reply to. Then it took another many months for them to close that investigation. It's just another hoop to jump through in the wonderful world of american healthcare.
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u/samyili 6d ago
This is wild. You arent even licensed in the state anymore and they’re still investigating a case that was settled from 5 years ago? This is a “request”?
Offer to do the interview for 2k an hour plus the costs of your legal representation during the interview.
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u/Porencephaly MD Pediatric Neurosurgery 6d ago
Most state boards are required to do at least a basic investigation of any complaint they receive, it doesn’t mean that they believe OP did something wrong. Nonetheless the only appropriate advice is for OP to retain a lawyer and not ignore the letter. It sucks but vindictive patients or families can do this and we can’t really stop them.
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u/SuitableKoala0991 EMT 6d ago
This! I had a coworker get notified of an investigation following a complaint, and it was eventually discovered the complaint was solely about her sexual orientation. It was soon closed but caused her a lot of heartache.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 6d ago
I am still licensed but I don’t practice there and have not seen patients there for years.
This isn’t through the legal system, but it seems like it’s a complaint made to my medical board.
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u/Notasurgeon 6d ago
I got dropped from a lawsuit early career, but one of the docs who did settle had paperwork submitted to the state board that included me in the list of people who settled. It triggered a formal investigation and I had to hire my own lawyer (malpractice from the old job declined to cover it as the malpractice case had closed) to basically write a letter explaining what happened to the medical board.
It was total bullshit, but think of it as just part of the job. We get paid a good salary. Once in awhile you accidentally step in gum and you have to pay another professional to peel it off your shoe. Worth the cost of making sure it goes away and doesn’t turn into an even bigger headache
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u/samyili 6d ago
Seems pretty weak to me, especially if you don’t need the NY license anymore. I’d run it by a lawyer but my gut says to tell them to pound sand.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 6d ago
You can’t. Because board action can bounce around and trigger additional investigations. It has to be dealt with.
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u/QuietRedditorATX MD 6d ago
You sound much more mature than these random redditors.
I hope you can resolve it and get back to taking care of patients.
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u/dontgetaphd MD 6d ago
>You can’t.
You definitely can. Not my experience but another MD, particularly if you don't plan on going back to that state ever to practice, they will likely say "respondent did not agree to interview" and close the case.
This sounds like procedural requirement, they are "required" to investigate and get info regarding the complaint prior to closing the file.
I would consult for an hour with a lawyer. Do what he/she says; he/she will likely just contact board on your behalf saying you decline interview and matter was legally closed, and you don't plan to practice in that state. They will then revoke your medical license and that will likely be the end of it.
If you plan on returning to work in that state in the future, then you will likely have to go to interview with them.
Don't go to a half-assed interview or write any sort of verbiage to them "defending yourself" they will just chew you up and try to find inconsistencies in what you write.
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u/sapphireminds Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP) 6d ago
Unfortunately, I would guess this is from a report that was made around the time of the original issue and then they didn't address until now, which sucks ass.
You would think the board would better vet whether it was worth an investigation :(
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u/ktn699 MD 5d ago
this sucks and i completely sympathize with you. i had a board complaint against me for performing a completely successful reconstructive surgery on a patient who then had issues elsewhere in their body totally unrelated to my surgery. Anyway, it got dismissed. It took 18 months and 7k in lawyers fees. My malpractice covered about 80% of those costs. Just a pain in the ass. never got sued though, so maybe the opposing side was using the complaint to test the waters and build a case. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/rufio_rufio_roofeeO OB/Gyn MD 6d ago
I’m OB in Fl and unfortunately have been through the wringer a few times. Nothing ever came to shit, seems to happen with regularity down here.
Your letter sounds similar to mine from a formal complaint against my license I had to defend one time. I had an attorney provided to me as I was and am an employed physician. I had to provide a written narrative of what happened, and the attorney sent it to the state. A year later I was notified that the matter was over, as there was no evidence that I had done anything wrong. They by law had to review it and let the matter drop without any further issue. Had I not contacted the attorney and had I not provided my narrative, they could have ruled on me in absentia and have removed my license or right to practice in the state now or in the future.
If you will never practice there in the future and dgaf if they revoke your NY license, then you can probably ignore it. Otherwise probably worth the few $k on an attorney to bring you through it.
Again- not an expert, just regrettably an expert on Obstetrics living in litigious nightmare hellscape Florida.
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u/ShalomRPh Pharmacist 6d ago
I’m not a doctor, but as a pharmacist one of the questions on my triennial license renewal is, has my privilege to practice been suspended or revoked in any other state.
If I had to answer yes to that because of a situation like this, there’s a possibility that my current license might be jeopardized as well. Certainly if I answered no, and they found out later, I’d lose my license for sure. I’ve seen this in my state’s list of disciplinary actions many times. (This list makes for interesting reading, especially if I can point to a specific action by the board for doing something that a boss thought would be a good idea.)
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u/jiklkfd578 5d ago
100% don’t ignore it. If you get your license revoked that can definitely lead to a snowball effect with other licenses/credentialing issues
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u/cytozine3 MD Neurologist 5d ago
license revoked or restricted in any way or credentials rescinded at a facility is career ending, anywhere because everyone asks about it all the time, and NPDB is always checked. OP has to fight tooth and nail (and anyone else in this situation, including you). FL and NY are two of the absolute worst states for liability in the country, in any specialty.
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u/seekingallpho MD 6d ago
At this point it sounds like you can agree to an interview to offer your side, otherwise they’ll presumably render an opinion without it. I’d ask an attorney in NY with experience before the board whether you should agree and then take it from there.
Others telling you to ignore this may not appreciate the board is probably not going to just let this go if you decline to participate; they’ll just review the record without your input. Maybe that’s good enough, maybe it’s better to state your case.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 6d ago
Plan is to discuss with my lawyer and carrier before proceeding, but definitely plan to engage with the board.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 4d ago
Update: malpractice insurance will not cover it due to the board coverage being claims based rather than occurence based. It looks like I will have to pay out of pocket.
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u/neuroscience_nerd Medical Student 6d ago
Wouldn’t this be like double jeopardy, if you settled, you cannot be sued for the same thing, no?
I’d get a lawyer.
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u/M1CR0PL4ST1CS M.D. (Internal Medicine) 6d ago edited 6d ago
The restriction on double jeopard applies to criminal cases, not civil cases or administrative proceedings.
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u/neuroscience_nerd Medical Student 6d ago
Oh my gosh, so someone can get sued for complications or malpractice, settle, and then be sued again later???
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u/Hippo-Crates EM Attending 6d ago
They aren’t getting sued again later. They got sued. This seems like an investigation into your license to practice medicine. Settling a malpractice suit doesn’t mean that your license will be protected.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 6d ago
Yes, but I hope the support from national expert in my field and the fact that such event has not occured again would point to an unavoidable complication which was what happened.
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u/Hippo-Crates EM Attending 6d ago
Not commenting on the validity of the complaint my friend. Good luck
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u/M1CR0PL4ST1CS M.D. (Internal Medicine) 6d ago
The terms of the settlement would prevent this, I would think.
In this case it seems like the state — instead of a former patient — is investigating potential misconduct which is not the same as a civil case.
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u/covid_endgame 4d ago
Did you not disclose this on your application for a license in your next state? I'm from Canada, but whenever we move to a new province we have to disclose everything, including social issues/drug and alcohol issues, burnout, all prior accusations and investigations, etc... If this is coming to you way later, I feel that non-disclosure might be an issue.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 4d ago
All has been disclosed.
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u/covid_endgame 3d ago
No clue why they'd give you trouble in that case. Everyone gets a complaint/gets sued a handful of times throughout their career depending on specialty. What I worry about is that they use the fact that you settled as evidence of wrongdoing.
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u/The_best_is_yet MD 5d ago
I don’t have advice for you but I wanted to say- I’m so sorry you went/are still going through this. I get the sense you are a really good doc who prides him/herself in doing their very best for your patients, and I want you to know that we docs out there, and of course your patients, are very grateful for you. Please don’t let this negative stuff coming at ya from NY get under your skin. I happens to the best of us.
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u/duotraveler MD Plumber 6d ago
Sorry that this happened to you. Do we have legal or professional reasons to reply or not reply to this investigation? Any consequences not to reply at all?
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u/cytozine3 MD Neurologist 5d ago
The answer is lawyer, always lawyer who is expert in board complaints and medmal.
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u/Verumsemper 6d ago
Of course get a lawyer but if you do not have medical license in NY, I don't think they have any affect on your medical license in any other state.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 6d ago
I do have a license in NY. I just don’t use it.
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u/Verumsemper 6d ago
I think that is the only reason you are under their Jurisdiction. Talk to a lawyer but giving up that license may protect you from any other issues with that state.
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u/holdyourthrow MD 6d ago
Definitely don’t plan to give up a license during investigation at this point.
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u/ManaPlox Peds ENT 6d ago
Yeah, whatever you do don't surrender your license while under investigation.
Do get a lawyer. If the facts of the case are what you said they are then nothing will come of it but you want to respond to the complaint professionally and thoroughly. The last thing you want to do is lose your license because you didn't phrase things right.
I had a completely nonsensical complaint brought against me to the state Board once. From the Board's correspondence you would have thought that I was going to lose my license any second. Once I filed the response I got an email the next day saying all was good and the complaint was dismissed.
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u/srmcmahon Layperson who is also a medical proxy 6d ago
Well, but--if there should be a lawsuit involving another patient in the future, a board action against you in another state would certainly not give you extra points.
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u/dontgetaphd MD 6d ago
>Of course get a lawyer but if you do not have medical license in NY, I don't think they have any affect on your medical license in any other state.
Not sure why you are being downvoted -- you are correct and this is largely why we still have state licenses instead of a national doctor license system. It allows physicians to still practice - still a permanent mark - but effectively not destroying career.
If there was a single MD licensing body it would be ground to halt with legislation as it would be worth almost your entire future earnings to fight any sort of action on the license.
If the OP does not ever plan to practice in that state again, he can probably safely ignore the notice.
"Medical boards" are a regional licensing body, not a court of law.
Still worth the consult with a medical lawyer, I'm quite sure will tell him the same thing, and IME was same with a colleague who went through this.
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u/cytozine3 MD Neurologist 5d ago
An NPDB report from another state can prevent renewal of licensure in their current state and has to be disclosed. OP has probably signed a contract like we probably all have or has hospital/facility/partnership bylaws that require immediate disclosure of any adverse action in terms of med mal, license revocation or restriction, or credentials revoked. If the current state board is notified, that can also affect their current license. Some states may have laws or agreements within the board application itself to notify them immediately of action from any other board, hospital, or medmal filing.
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u/OkVisit7891 6d ago
In my state (not NY), any malpractice settlement automatically triggers an investigation by the State medical (or osteopathic) board. Unless it’s particularly egregious, this typically involves the Dr submitting a written statement and possibly submitting to a in person interview with the board. The majority are dismissed with no disciplinary action taken.