When going to the doctor, you expect the physician to be trustworthy and qualified to take care of your needs. This would probably include being a licensed physician free of a criminal past. However, in Colorado and five other states criminal background checks are not required to receive a doctor’s license. Colorado relies heavily on self disclosure to ensure that doctors do not have a criminal past. As you probably could assume, this has been somewhat problematic for the state of Colorado.
One such example includes the story of Dr. Teresa Beer, who is a licensed optometrist in Colorado. She had accumulated five drunken driving arrests from 1996 through 2015, yet maintained a doctor’s license. Colorado officially became aware of this in August of 2015 from anonymous tip resulting in Beer relinquishing her license in April of 2016. During that time the optometry board suspended Beer’s license and required her to enroll in alcohol treatment. Beer never complied with those orders and while treating patients in that nine month span she was convicted yet again for drunken driving, failure to comply with her court-ordered probation, and lastly was arrested for disorderly conduct.
This is not a new issue. Since 1998, the Federation of State Medical Boards recommended that medical boards conduct criminal checks on physicians seeking full or partial licensure. While Beer’s case can be deemed unacceptable, other instances have occurred that are much worse. South Dakota and New York used to have laws very similar to Colorado in 1985. These laws allowed Michael Swango who was convicted of poisoning co-workers in Illinois to continue practicing medicine In New York and South Dakota. While doing so Swango was believed to have poisoned as many as 50 people through the 80s and 90s and is now serving three consecutive life sentences.
As most can tell this system is obviously very broken and puts the life of numerous people in danger. This is why it is strongly recommended that medical organizations screen their employees to protect the lives of their patents. IntelliCorp offers multiple products tailored to the healthcare industry in addition to the standard criminal background check. These products include the medical fraud & abuse registry (FACIS), medical sanctions search, as well as drug testing. All these products being successfully implemented into an organization’s hiring practices can give the employer peace of mind and prevent cases like this.
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