Competence Checks of Doctors, Health Care Providers Is Urged

Doctors and other health care providers should be periodically reviewed to make sure they are still competent, an expert commission says in a report contending that the interests of professionals too often outweigh consumer protection.

Most states require continuing education, but health care professionals should have their competence evaluated periodically after they are initially licensed to practice, the Pew Health Professions Commission recommends.

The commission also recommends more public representation on the boards that discipline doctors and other providers and a better way of resolving conflicts among providers about who is qualified to perform what service.

Groups representing doctors were cool to the recommendations, saying the current system works pretty well.

Periodically testing doctor competence may sound good, but it would be expensive and complicated to do meaningfully, they said.

Overall, the report concludes, consumer protection often conflicts with the economic interests of health care professionals, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and other providers.

The nation has only minimal standards governing health care workers, said former Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Maine), chairman of the commission.

“Quite frankly, these minimal standards have served only to make certain that the most egregiously incompetent health professionals are prohibited from practicing,” he said. “This is not enough.”

The report recommends that boards that discipline health professionals get at least one-third of their members from the public to ensure they are not just protecting their own.