TUCSON, Ariz., Sept. 04, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A bad-faith or sham peer review can ruin a physician’s entire career, but there are some methods that might help undo the damage, writes Lawrence Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D., in the fall issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Huntoon has served as an expert in sham peer review cases for 20 years.
A doctor should take protective action at the earliest stage of the process. Once an official Request for Corrective Action is made and an investigation is opened, a physician will be forced to self-report and explain the investigation for the rest of his career, even if he prevails in an internal peer review. With the help of a skilled attorney, he may be able to obtain a Withdrawal of Request for Corrective Action.
Immediately after the attack, the physician should set up a “war room” to organize documents, Dr. Huntoon advises. He needs to develop a written response to vigorously rebut the charges, and develop and implement ways to expose the hospital’s wrongdoing in bringing false and/or fabricated charges.
Injunctive relief is possible to prevent the hospital from filing a reputationally fatal report to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) while a case is pending, Dr. Huntoon writes, and it may be possible though difficult to get a court order forcing a hospital to void an unjustified NPDB entry.
In addition to harm to their practice and livelihood, all victims of sham peer review are subject to betrayal trauma, even if they prevail at trial or achieve a favorable settlement agreement. Healing from betrayal trauma is possible with the right approach, individualized for each physician, Dr. Huntoon states.
“Ethical physicians must always support other ethical physicians and seek ways to attach a social stigma to unethical physicians who bring false, fabricated, trumped-up charges against a good physician and who instigate and participate in sham peer review,” Dr. Huntoon concludes.
The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons is published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943.
Contact: Jane Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, janeorientmd@gmail.com
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