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SC Senate has trouble getting doctor discipline bill off the ground

Physician Practice Advisor, April 13, 2005

South Carolina legislators are trying to make doctors more accountable for their actions, and remove some of the secrecy of the physician discipline
process. But the mobilization was slowed last week, and some legislators are wondering whether pressure from local medical associations had anything to do with the delay.

According to an April 4 story in The State, an amendment has been proposed in the State Senate that would allow members of the public to learn about any criminal complaints filed against SC doctors once the State Medical Board has filed formal charges against that doctor. Currently, the public learns of the Board's traditionally secretive process only if final or emergency public action is taken against the physician.

The amendment was held up on Wedensday, April 6, however, by one senator, Ray Cleary, who wanted more time to study the proposal. Cleary is a dentist, and has acknowledged that he was asked by local doctors' groups to review the amendment.

The quest to bring physician discipline procedure out in the open has
received a new push in South Carolina thanks to a long delay in sanctioning against Dr. James Shortt, an alternative-medicine physician currently under federal investigation for allegedly prescribing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to bodybuilders and members of the Carolina Panthers football team.

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