Many Hospitals Fail to Report Disciplined Doctors to National Practitioner Data Bank

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported that "for almost 20 years, federal law has required hospitals and medical boards to report doctors they discipline -- for medical incompetence, unprofessional conduct, substandard care, and the like -- to something called the National Practitioner Data Bank." However, "many hospitals don't appear to be following the law, says the nonprofit consumer group Public Citizen." Investigators "there found that 49 percent of hospitals in the United States hadn't reported a single doctor to the Data Bank from when it began, in 1990, until the end of 2007."