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Board Certified Surgeons: How to Verify their Credentials, Accreditations and Malpractice HistoryVerifying Your Plastic Surgeon's Medical License Verifying Your Plastic Surgeon's Certification(s) Researching a Surgeon's Malpractice History Professional Liability Insurance Verifying A Surgery Center's Accreditation Verifying Your Plastic Surgeon's Medical LicenseState licensure is very important because it sets a minimum standard necessary to practice medicine. Your surgeon must hold a valid medical license for the state in which he or she performs your procedure. These licenses may be a Medical Doctor (M.D.), which is an allopathic physician, or a Doctor of Osteopathy (D.O.), which is an osteopathic physician. Most cosmetic surgeons are medical doctors, but sometimes you may find one that is an osteopathic doctor. Additionally, a Physician's Assistant (P.A.) or Registered Nurse (R.N.) may apply peels and give injections such as collagen and Botox while under a physician's supervision. To verify licenses for any of the medical personnel listed above, please check out these websites: M.D. - Federation of State Medical Boards D.O. – American Osteopathic Association R.N. - National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. P.A. - American Academy of Physician's Assistants Verifying Your Plastic Surgeon's CertificationAlthough not every plastic surgeon will be listed with the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), its website provides you with the means to determine if yours is a board certified plastic surgeon. Click the link button below to access the American Board of Medical Specialties' online certification verification database. Alternatively, you can verify a surgeon's certification over the phone by calling 1-866-ASK-ABMS (or 1-866-275-2267). Both of these services are provided at no charge. Researching a Surgeon's Malpractice HistoryUnfortunately, we live in a time of frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits that can cloud our judgment when making educated decisions about our care and who provides it. Equally unfortunate is the fact that there are surgeons who perform sub-par surgeries. Sorting all this out takes many hours of effort, and sometimes you're not able to get all the information you'd like. There are highly competent surgeons who are sued, and there are surgeons with less than adequate skills who haven't been sued yet. If you find that your surgeon has been named in a recent lawsuit, find out why. Keep in mind that filing a lawsuit against someone is easy – proving negligence is another matter. Malpractice lawsuits are filed because the results were not what the patient expected or because an unforeseen circumstance arose (undiagnosed medical conditions, anesthesia complications, or events beyond the surgeon's control.) Most cases must prove negligence to be viable, but there have been successful cases where no negligence was proven. Negligence would include an attending surgeon who administered care that was considered substandard in that particular medical community or specialty – in this case, plastic surgery. Unfortunately it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine which surgeons are victims of frivolous lawsuits and which cases involve patients who were truly victims. Most surgeons will not volunteer that they have been involved in a lawsuit, but you do have the right to ask, with emphasis on recent suits. Another option is to visit the courthouse for the county where your surgeon practices and perform a search for litigations, arbitrations and trials in the civil index. The county clerk can help you with this and with making copies (a fee sometimes applies). Alternative, malpractice information may also be found at the Superior Court Office. There are private and semi-private firms that will provide this service for you. These include www.WestLaw.com or www.E-law.com, www.KnowX.com (free and pay per search) may also have information. Be forewarned: you may discover that what you thought was going to be malpractice information is simply a divorce or other legal action unrelated to the surgeon's professional life. You can also try the Federation of Medical Boards Disciplinary History Service, which charges a fee. Professional Liability InsuranceNot all surgeons carry professional liability insurance and not all states require it. Contact your state's Department of Insurance (DOI), or the DOI in states where your surgeon has been licensed to practice in the past. The amount of information available to you will vary from state to state. You can also ask your surgeon directly if he or she carries professional liability insurance. Some surgeons choose to use a surety bond instead of carrying insurance, particularly in states that have very high insurance premiums. In such cases it's often easier and less expensive to carry a bond. This basically means the surgeon either has the funds or liquid assets set aside, or maintains an irrevocable letter of credit, that's equal to the maximum award amount for that state. Doctors who choose not to carry traditional liability insurance are usually required to post such information in plain view in their office, or on documents made readily available to their patients. Factors that may determine whether or not your surgeon chooses to have insurance include the region of the country where he or she practices, state requirements, risk of specialty, assets, or requirements of group practices or premises. Verifying A Surgery Center's AccreditationIf your surgery is to be performed at an on-site ambulatory surgery center, make sure they are accredited! Accreditation associations ensure that surgery centers are well equipped and staffed, have equipment to properly sterilize instruments, an emergency protocol and proper emergency equipment such as a crash cart and are easily accessible to emergency vehicles. Below are the four accreditation association in the United States and one in Canada: Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) American Association for Accreditation For Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (AAAASF) American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) Canadian Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities Further Researching a Prospective Cosmetic SurgeonThanks to the Internet you can find out just about anything on everybody - if you know what you're doing. Some sites aren't free so please take note of this. You can simply type in your plastic surgeon's name into a search engine like Google and it may pull up all kinds of fascinating information. Google indexes the contents on the page rather than just the "keywords", resulting in extensive information, including posts on message boards. You can click "cached" and your search words will be highlighted. |
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