California law forbids patients from being heard at doctor disciplinary hearings. That could change - Yahoo News

Tracy Dominguez has often thought about standing in the lobby of the Medical Board of California and shouting. Maybe then she would be heard, she said.

Since her pregnant 23-year-old daughter Demi died in 2019 while under the care of a Bakersfield doctor repeatedly reprimanded for negligence, according to state medical board records, Dominguez has fought to have her family's heartbreak considered in disciplinary hearings by the Medical Board of California. Instead, she said state law reduced her daughter to being called "Patient 1" in documentation given to the medical board members who discipline doctors. Her grandson Malakhi, delivered as Demi was dying, was described only as "a 4 lb 7 oz male infant" in the case against Dr. Arthur Park.

In December, the Medical Board allowed Park to avoid an administrative hearing and surrender his license with the ability to apply for reinstatement later.

"This is a tragedy that no family should have to go through and then they make it so hard in the complaint process," Dominguez said. "Our voices are not being heard."

Senate Bill 920 by Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) would change that.

For nearly three decades, California law has forbidden the state's medical board from considering victim statements in their decision-making. Instead, a person filing a complaint to the medical board can provide a statement to a deputy attorney general assigned to their case, but those words are not allowed to be shared with board members who ultimately determine what discipline, if any, is warranted.

"People feel they don’t have a voice in the disciplinary process and they want to be able to tell their side and be heard," Hurtado said. "I don’t think they are expecting everything to change overnight, but it is something they desperately want."

Medical board member Eserick "TJ" Watkins said the current process allows the board — composed of eight physicians and five public members — to ignore the harm patients say they faced. That's a criticism shared by patient advocacy groups who have for decades accused the board of being too lenient on the doctors it regulates.

source: https://news.yahoo.com/california-law-forbids-patients-being-181957375.html

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