This past year, staff members with the Board of Medicine sifted through more than 19,000 complaints filed against Florida physicians. There, in a procedure similar to a traditional courtroom trial, the doctor can make his case before a judge with the aid of lawyers and expert witnesses. Increasingly, doctors are doing just that. According to state statistics, the number of consent agreements and appearances before the Board of Medicine has slipped since 1994, while the number of cases being brought before administrative law judges, if continued at the present pace, will hit a new five-year high. An emergency room physician in Miami was accused of failing to recognize abnormal test results in a patient on the verge of a heart attack.
Hospital records show that the doctor discharged the patient, who later died.
The doctor later added notes to the medical record to show that the patient left the hospital against the physician's advice. The Division of Administrative Hearings dismissed the case. The patient, who had terminal cardiac disease, died from a heart attack in the recovery room. The Division of Administrative Hearings dismissed the case. All three cases raised the ire of Board of Medicine members.