States disciplined 3,078 doctors last year, from revoking their licenses or restricting their practice to putting them under probationary scrutiny.
The Federation of State Medical Boards said Tuesday the boards took an additional 629 administrative actions, non-disciplinary action against doctors that could be anything from renewing a license to restoring one previously revoked.California issued the most sanctions, 280, followed by Florida with 241. Washington, D.C., issued no sanctions last year, Utah had 13, Nebraska had three and New Hampshire five.
More relevant was the number of sanctions per 1,000 doctors who practice within that state. Arizona's board of medical examiners sanctioned 14.9 doctors per 1,000 compared with 1.3 in Delaware.
There are some 550,000 doctors in the United States, so the 3,078 disciplinary actions can't be reaching all the bad doctors, said Dr. James Winn, federation vice president.
But he noted that sanctions against doctors rose from 2,971 in 1992.
Winn said state medical boards probably are not doing a uniform job, because many are underfunded and understaffed. The federation will recommend to state legislatures how to improve their medical boards' oversight.
The disciplinary actions are a matter of public record and the names of the disciplined doctors can be obtained by contacting a state medical board.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Number of sanctions per state last year
The number of sanctions state medical boards took against doctors in 1993:
Alabama 25
Alaska 6
Arizona 122
Arkansas 17
California 280
Colorado 82
Connecticut 42
Delaware 3
District of Columbia 0
Florida 241
Georgia 108
Hawaii 7
Idaho 8
Illinois 107
Indiana 70
Iowa 43
Kansas 27
Kentucky 83
Louisiana 65
Maine 10
Maryland 97
Massachusetts 52
Michigan 100
Minnesota 75
Mississippi 34
Missouri 86
Montana 9
Nebraska 3
Nevada 14
New Hampshire 5
New Jersey 145
New Mexico 15
New York 227
North Carolina 49
North Dakota 16
Ohio 108
Oklahoma 68
Oregon 32
Pennsylvania 72
Rhode Island 11
South Carolina 55
South Dakota 9
Tennessee 27
Texas 144
Utah 13
Vermont 13
Virginia 57
Washington 75
West Virginia 47
Wisconsin 69
Wyoming 5