Texas Medical Board – Disciplinary Trends
As previous noted in the blog, the 2009 Fiscal Year was a big on for the number of investigations and Informal Settlement Conferences for the Texas Medical Board. Last fiscal year (Runs September 1 to August 31) the Board held 700 ISCs, 200 more than in FY 2008.
Based on a report by the Executive Director on Thursday, November 5th, the Board trend on investigations appears to be a little less than last year. In October 2009, the Board opened 50 fewer cases than it did in October 2008. The Executive Director, Mari Robinson, attributes this change to due more careful initial review, which is now conducted by a physician and an attorney.
However, this does not mean that there are only a handful of cases. There are currently 1875 open investigations with the Board. Moreover, the Legal Division of the Board is extremely active. There are 719 active legal cases with the Board. Of those 101 cases are pending before SOAH. That is a record number, and means 17.5% of all cases in Legal are at SOAH.
Ms. Robinson reports that the Board is experiencing a watermark situation with numbers and she does not see it going down anytime in the future.
Additionally, from the discussion held by the full Board on Friday, November 6th, it appears to me that the Board members are only seeking to become more forceful with people who they deem have violation the Act.