A San Francisco Superior Court Judge ruled yesterday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was within his powers to furlough staff of the state’s Medical Board, delivering a defeat to the state’s leading physician advocacy group.
The California Medical Association filed the lawsuit in October, claiming that the reduction in the medical board’s workforce violated a state law and resulted in delays in licensing doctors to practice medicine in state. It also undermines public safety by delaying the process of investigating and disciplining dangerous doctors, said Long Do, the litigation director for the CMA.
Do told California Watch that the judge ruled from the bench that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has broad authority to furlough employees during a fiscal emergency. The attorney said the ruling comes in contrast to one by an Alameda County Superior Court judge who recently blocked the governor’s furlough order to certain state employees – including the Medical Board’s staff. The CMA is likely to appeal to the state Supreme Court, Do said.
The impact of the furloughs on investigations of allegedly dangerous doctors has been significant.
Before the furloughs, medical board investigators took just under a year to advance a complaint into a formal action, Do said. The time now is closer to 450 days.
The consequences of delayed justice in disciplining medical professionals have been thoroughly explored by ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times. Those news outlets revealed how delays in cases before the state's nursing board enabled addled and addicted nurses to harm patients again and again.
One needs to look no further for examples of troubling physician conduct than the allegation of gross negligence against Octomom Nadya Suleman’s physician, who was accused of giving her more than a dozen fertility treatments when counseling may have been more appropriate.
The case of an Orange County doctor accused of repeated negligence and linked to infant and adults' deaths over two decades is further evidence that an impaired medical board can be dangerous.
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