At any time you may be the subject of a medical board complaint. A patient or a patient’s family member may have sent in a complaint about a perceived failure in care. Since complaints unlike malpractice suits) are easy to file, you may be subjected to several complaints a year for prescription errors, diagnosis mistakes or doctor-patient confidentiality violations.
Not all licensed professionals know how to respond to complaints – when you know you did your best, it’s hard not to take a misguided complaint as a sort of personal attack on your character and skill. Just the same, a medical board complaint is no little matter and you should handle these with swift and accurate professionalism.
Here are three major mistakes you can make:
You ignore the complaint (for as long as possible)
It may be your first instinct to ignore a medical board complaint. Complaints come in all the time and the latest one was just stacked on the pile. Perhaps you believe the person who made the complaint is overreacting or lying. You may even deny that anything could have been wrongly done during your practice.
Medical board complaints should be quickly answered with a formal response. That’s the best way to avoid a long, drawn-out process that could put your license in danger.
You don’t follow up with your employer and affiliate hospitals
It may seem like extra work and a waste of time contacting your employer and affiliate hospitals every time you receive a medical board complaint.
Your employer and affiliate hospitals may ask you to be transparent about the events detailed in the medical board complaint. You may need to respond to each complaint despite the time and effort they require.
You don’t seek legal counsel
Medical board complaints can do serious damage to your license and image. You have received a complaint that doesn’t seem to depict events accurately in the way they happened. You may be facing harsher penalties for a complaint than what should be given.
You may need to contact experienced legal help that can protect you from losing your medical license.