Maryland Board of Physicians Profiles: Why They Do Not Show Every Malpractice Claim
Published .
The Maryland Board of Physicians’ online profile is useful for checking a physician’s license, certain disciplinary actions, and the limited malpractice information the law makes public. But a profile with no malpractice entry should not be read as proof that no malpractice claim has ever been made. The profile is not a complete claims database.
What the profile is designed to show
Maryland law requires the profile to report the number of medical-malpractice final court judgments and arbitration awards against a physician during the most recent 10-year period. A judgment or arbitration award is not the same thing as every claim that was filed or settled. A claim may resolve without either one.
Settlements appear through a separate, narrow disclosure mechanism. A person may contact the Board to ask whether, as reported to the Board, the physician had three or more malpractice settlements of at least $1 million each during the most recent five-year period. The Board is not required to use the profile to list every settlement, its amount, or the underlying allegations.
Why the record can be incomplete
A case may be pending, resolved privately, settled below the statutory threshold, or fall outside the applicable look-back period. The Board’s own disclosure says that malpractice payment information is reported by the practitioner and that the Board does not have details concerning those payments. The Board also says that it cannot guarantee completeness of information received from other sources and that unreported actions will not appear on the profile. A blank field therefore has limited meaning.
How to use the profile and look further
Treat the profile as one screening tool. Read the Board’s explanation of its malpractice data, check the date the profile was extracted, and make the separate settlement inquiry if it is relevant. For a particular public lawsuit or judgment, search available court records; for regulatory discipline, review the public orders and official licensing information. Those sources also have limits: a settlement is not necessarily an admission of negligence, and a claim that never became a public court case may not be discoverable through court records. When evaluating a physician, consider the whole picture, including training, experience, specialty, and the care setting.
Related Maryland Cases and Authorities
Md. Code, Health Occupations § 14-411.1; Maryland Board of Physicians, Practitioner Profile System and Malpractice Disclosure; Maryland Board of Physicians, Public Information Act Requests—Records Immediately Available.