The board also sent monthly summaries of its actions which covered 1991 through 1999, listing the physician's name, degree, license number, city and state of residence, date and type of action taken, and reason for the action. The orders contain information on modifications and terminations of board actions but not on court decisions which affect board actions. The Washington State Board of Osteopathic Medicine sent orders for actions taken from 1991 through 1999 which include the physician's name, degree, date and type of action and the reason for the action. These contain information on modifications and terminations of board orders but not on court decisions that affect board actions. Washington stated that court decisions would be included in the information we received.
Many orders are consent agreements between the physician and the board prior to final board action.
Disciplinary actions taken by other states against physicians located in Washington or that match a physician disciplined by Washington are also included. This grade is a measure of the completeness of the information on disciplined doctors. We did not rate osteopathic boards in our survey. Those state licensing boards with web sites make independent choices about the type of information to be included on their site and how often it is updated. According to the Federation of State Medical Boards, Washington took 38 serious disciplinary actions against MDs in 1999.