According to a new review by Consumer Reports, New Mexicans looking for legal claims against physicians, criminal charges or disciplinary actions that hospitals have taken against them won’t easily find that information on the medical board’s website, as reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Here are five observations:
1. The website discloses medical board actions against a physician’s license, but unlike the websites of similar boards in other states, it doesn’t say whether the physician has been censured by a hospital or paid out a malpractice claim.
2. New Mexico’s score of 34 in the review was one of the lowest in the country. California was first with 84 and Mississippi was last with 6 in an analysis of the 65 state medical and osteopathic boards in the country.
3. Amanda Quintana, a spokeswoman for the New Mexico Medical Board, said the board doesn’t have specific statutory authority to publish third-party source information.
4. The board received good ratings for explaining how patients can submit complaints against physicians, but poor marks for not providing a full picture of a physician’s history.
5. The New Mexico Medical Board meets quarterly to rule on conduct of physicians in the state and plans to review the Consumer Reports study at its May meeting.