Brown-Waite: Doctor database could help VA

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite said a national doctor database with public information about disciplinary actions might have helped prevent the kind of tragedy that has unfolded at a veterans' hospital in the midwest.

Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, is the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which held a hearing earlier this week on issues surrounding the death of 19 patients at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Marion, Ill.

"Giving patients and families access to vital information about their doctors is an excellent way to weed out poor medical professionals and help reduce preventable errors and deaths," Brown-Waite said in a statement.

Brown-Waite pointed to a similar doctor database she said she helped create in Florida that also includes information on malpractice suits.

"Sadly, nothing like the Florida program exists in other states or on the national level," she said.

Investigators have flagged 19 deaths at the Illinois hospital during the last two years that they say are possibly the result of substandard care. They say hospital spervisors moved to slowly to address concerns.

-- William R. Levesque, Times staff writer

Comments

You mean you want a data base because the VA and Congressional oversight have failed? Sounds to me like bigger government and more jobs for the 'boys'.
What next? A data base for pilots? hair dressers? firemen? where do you suggest it end?