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Filing a complaint with a state medical board The American Iatrogenic Association has graciously allowed us to reprint their article on filing doctor complaints with state/province medical boards.
Please keep in mind that state medical boards (in Canada, known as "Colleges of Physicians") deal almost exclusively in unethical or illegal actions, so they will ignore complaints
regarding topics such as customer service, rudeness, and long wait times, to name just a few. If you are going to file a complaint with your state/province medical board, we urge you to
ALSO rate your doctor here on RateMDs.com. Rating your doctor on RateMDs.com insures your complaint will be seen by others.
Keep in mind that state medical boards are generally comprised of physicians. As with all such agencies that regulate occupations, members of these boards feel a personal and professional kinship with those who they regulate. In other words, doctors do not regulate doctors effectively. Claims to the contrary notwithstanding, a state medical board does not operate in your interest. Board members are not paid by you, they are not your friends, and they have no vested interest in your welfare. There is an almost total lack of discussion of the state medical boards in the national debate over medical error, which shows their irrelevance. If you were sued or arrested, would you go to court alone, expecting the judge to represent your legal interests? Not unless you valued your money and freedom little. Americans have adopted adversary legal systems because we recognize that judges and lawyers can only be expected to represent the interests of those who pay them. You would be best represented by a lawyer contracted with and paid for by you. Medical board proceedings are more akin to a legal system in which you have no choice but to throw yourself on the mercy of a lawyer-judge, forgetting that your opponent is also a lawyer and expecting the judge to forget it, too! If you spent much of your life training to become a physician, wouldn't you probably believe that physicians are pretty good people? The odds are extremely small that your complaint will result in a physician being disciplined. That does not mean that you should not file a complaint: you should. The best reason to file a complaint is that it might alert future customers of the doctor to his bad practices. Documenting your experience might help to prevent others from being victimized. The best weapon against bad medicine is public disclosure and awareness. State Medical Board Websites |