In a series of four articles named
The Cost of Courage, Steve Twedt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
exposed a growing problem faced by physicians who choose to go to
demand better patient care. All over the country, doctors who point out
unsafe conditions in a hospital, or substandard work by colleagues, are
being targeted for retribution.
Many of these physicians are being
terminated or disciplined on the grounds that they are being "disruptive."
They are shunned by their colleagues, their reputations smeared, and
often they find themselves listed in the National Practitioner Data
Bank (since being a "disruptive" physician gets you on the list) - a
move that makes it very difficult to find work practicing
medicine anywhere in the U.S.
Hospitals can discipline "disruptive" doctors with relative impunity, as
the courts have taken pains to avoid getting involved in hospital
politics. Thus, due process is routinely denied to the whistle-blowers
who are accused of disruptive behavior, and they are punished without a fair hearing - and certainly without anybody
addressing the initial complaints that got them into hot water in the first
place.
