The Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure want to make it a criminal offense for a doctor to have sex with a patient. The Atlanta Constitution-Journal recently ranked Mississippi dead last in protecting patients from sexual abuse by doctors. However, the new executive director of the Board apparently is taking the bull by the horns and working to get off of the bottom and better protect patients as well. The Mississippi Business Journal reported:
Dr. John Hall, executive director of the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure, is working with lawmakers to draft a bill to make a physician’s sexual relations with a patient a criminal offense.
No doctor “should even think of patients as prey,” Hall said in an interview.
Hall, who was named to the post about five months ago, said, “If it happens, I’m going find you.” He noted that he has an ongoing complaint program.
The aggressive approach coincides with a series published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that ranks Mississippi 51st, including the District of Columbia, in how well it protects patients from sexually abusive physicians.
It scored 30 out of a possible 100 points.
“I’m hoping to add this to the criminal code rather than the medical practice act,” Hall said in an email. “As a felony penalty [it] would include permanent ineligibility for [Mississippi] medical licensure (something [the licensure board] could not do by current medical practice act or regulations), as well as possibly jail/prison time and perhaps some form of restitution.”...
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Taking aim at physician sex predators; Mississippi ranked 51st in patient protection
Posted by: Jack Weatherly in Health, MBJ FEATURE, NEWS November 28, 2016
By JACK WEATHERLY
Dr. John Hall, executive director of the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure, is working with lawmakers to draft a bill to make a physician’s sexual relations with a patient a criminal offense.
No doctor “should even think of patients as prey,” Hall said in an interview.
Hall, who was named to the post about five months ago, said, “If it happens, I’m going find you.” He noted that he has an ongoing complaint program.
The aggressive approach coincides with a series published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that ranks Mississippi 51st, including the District of Columbia, in how well it protects patients from sexually abusive physicians.
It scored 30 out of a possible 100 points.
“I’m hoping to add this to the criminal code rather than the medical practice act,” Hall said in an email. “As a felony penalty [it] would include permanent ineligibility for [Mississippi] medical licensure (something [the licensure board] could not do by current medical practice act or regulations), as well as possibly jail/prison time and perhaps some form of restitution.”
Hall, who also has a law degree, argues that “consent” by a patient is “impossible,” because of what he calls an “insurmountable power barrier.”
He said he is aware of reports of situations where there are women doctors who prey on men, other women and same-sex male predation.
“It’s as soul-crushing as the Boston Diocese,” Hall said of the scandal in which the Catholic hierarchy protected priests who had sexually abused children.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that “only 11 states have a law requiring medical authorities to report to police or a prosecutor when they suspect a sexual crime has been committed against an adult.”
Hall said that the state of Washington has what appears to him to be a good model for Mississippi.
Dr. Lee Voulters, president of the Mississippi State Medical Association, which represents 70 percent of practicing physicians in the state, said that he had not heard that Hall, who must have the consent of the licensure board, was moving forward with the proposed legislation.
But he said: “We’re all supportive of the fact that a physician should not have sexual relations with a patient. They are in a position of power and influence. It’s unethical, it’s immoral and it shouldn’t happen.”
“Our No. 1 goal is patient safety,” Voulters said. “My only hesitation is what should the punishment be.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that “since the grading was completed, Mississippi has begun to make improvements in transparency, removing barriers to disciplinary information about doctors.”... Rest of article.
The Atlanta newspaper did indeed rank Mississippi dead last among the states in protecting patients from sexually abusive doctors. It reported:
As part of its ongoing “Doctors & Sex Abuse” series, the AJC studied five categories of laws in every state in the nation to determine which states are the best — and the worst — at shielding patients from sexually abusive doctors. The statutes examined covered everything from the duty to report bad doctors and the power to revoke the licenses of the worst, to the laws that decide who gets to serve on medical licensing boards and how much information consumers can know about doctors who have gotten into trouble.... Rest of a very thorough article.
The charts tell the tale. Click on them to enlarge.
31 comments:
Current MSMA President Dr. Lee Voulters: ...A physician should not have sexual relations with a patient. ... It's unethical, it's immoral and it shouldn't happen."
***Randy Easterling (former MSMA President) kicks in the door***
"Now wait just a freakin' minute, Lee."
This should apply to nurses as well....Does Dr. Vaulters have a comment on that?
@1:31so wrong but so right.
Dr. Lee Voulters, president of the Mississippi State Medical Association, which represents 70 percent of practicing physicians in the state, said that he had not heard that Hall, who must have the consent of the licensure board, was moving forward with the proposed legislation.
But he said: “We’re all supportive of the fact that a physician should not have sexual relations with a patient. They are in a position of power and influence. It’s unethical, it’s immoral and it shouldn’t happen.”
“Our No. 1 goal is patient safety,” Voulters said. “My only hesitation is what should the punishment be.”
THE PUNISHMENT IS THE HOLDUP? DOCTORS ALWAYS PROTECTING DOCTORS.
You might want to check with the director of the Board of Nursing Licensure for that question.
Sounds like Dr. Hall is trying to do something good for the state. Sure is nice to have true leadership at the BML finally. Guarantee Easterling will destroy these efforts...just wait and see.
When does a patient become a non patient? I can't tell you how many women who were once patients became involved with and often married their doctors. What is the criterion used for this evaluation ?
@2:22- what about a law that protects nurses from physicians who prey on them? That is something Dr. Vaulters could be passionate about...
1:44 -- Please, state government, protect me from the cute little nurse who wants to bang me.
There are already laws on the books that make it a felony for a guard to have sex with an inmate, EVEN IF that sex is consensual. A variation of this law for doctors and patients would be easy to pass in the legislature.
So, another thing we are going to make illegal and lock people up for. So, why can't they just revoke the doctor's license to practice to address the unethical part. And if it wasn't consensual, why not just prosecute the doctor under the existing rape statutes? More laws. More locking people up. Sighh.
It happens more times than people think. The rounds a doctor makes in the morning are not just to check on the patient. The doctor even gets paid for it. Wonder how many times a husband has paid for the doctor to have sex with his wife?
Maybe it should apply to some other professions too like lawyers and physical therapist, etc.
but I don't think the medical board would have anything to do with prosecuting anybody isn't that the local DA's job? Even if this was a crime the medical board can't put anybody in jail.
3:36 has obviously been reading Penthouse Letters for forty years.
It takes two to tango. Doctors and lawyer are suppose to be highly educated and above such shenanigans but pussy is a powerful thing women know this and it has ruined many a good man. Both are consenting adults and should both be held equally responsible.
If a dentist takes advantage of a patient in a gassed state while in the chair that's a different thing all together.
6:08, no 20+ years working in a hospital. Once knew of a doctor that kept a woman in the hospital an extra week just for the sexual visits each morning. Her husbands insurance paid for the extra week.
Also knew a doctor that locked his wife inside their house each day when he went to work. She found out about him and one of is patients and decided to play the same game. She always found a way out of the house. He finally had her committed.
Doctors gonna play doctor no matter what......
Get over it
It's why they make chancery courts
What was I suppose to do? She wanted the medicine.
The smell of poon-tang is the most persuasive aroma ever to sweep across the planet. That alone pretty much controls everything that follows and all else pales in comparison.
As we all learned many years ago, "Women have half the money in the world and all the pussy."
My last physical was awkward. Got a prostrate exam. And the doctor had both hands on my shoulders??? Would a law like this protect me?
Voulters on the prey!
It starts between the ears, men, not between the legs.
What you find appealing and not appealing is in your brain. The boundaries you set and what you find taboo is in your brain.
Try to learn the biology instead of excusing your bad behaviors with myths.
You don't have to act on your impulses either. Maturity is the ability to control your impulses.
Yes, a lot of men are sexually immature but it's cultural, not biological.
Is anybody out there dumb enough to think a physician would keep a woman in the hospital so he could make morning rounds and gain sexual favors? She's laid up there without makeup in a hospital gown and morning-breath and you want us to believe he's gettin' off on that?
Wouldn't it make more sense to have her just run by the motel, say, about 6:00 in the afternoon, wearing her tennis skirt and pony-tail-ball-cap. Or she could wear a nurse's uniform.
One more reason we are last in every health statistic. Our docs can't provide good, sound medicine without groping their patient. What a shame. Dr. Hall seems like a stand up guy. Why would Voulter fight against punishment?
Back about the time the Debbie-Does-Dallas movies were hitting the big screen, there were several featuring busty blondes in nurses' uniforms giving it up to interns in dark hallways and patients who needed a little pepping up. Methinks most of you old farts are simply reliving that mythical period of your youth. The same crowd that dreams of being in tenth grade getting invited over to the math teacher's house for tutoring.
Please find some new material @7:49 AM. Your all-too-predictable snides are boring.
7:49, You do know what I was talking about. The woman I knew who was kept in the hospital for an extra week was a busty blonde. She even got one doctor to pay for a vacation for her and a friend on one of the hospital sponsored trips. Usually they take along their favorite nurse.
Will that include therapist and clergy when they counsel???
8:26 - That you again, Kingfish?
Curious is this will apply retroactively to the local gynecologist and friend of the MSBML who broke up a patient's marriage and later married her?
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