11x04 - State medical boards

[bunniefuu]

Welcome, welcome, welcome

to "Last Week Tonight"!

I'm John Oliver, thank you so much for

joining us. It has been a busy week.

Biden gave his State

of the Union speech

to a room including George Santos

in a bejeweled collar,

serving A-plus "Housewives" energy.

Sweden officially joined NATO,

and the Bellagio shut down

its fountains because, and this is true,

a rare bird landed in them.

And that's a pretty good bird!

Not the best bird, as we all know,

but still pretty good.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris

nearly made big news

when it seemed like she was

issuing the call for a ceasefire in Gaza

that people have

been demanding for months now,

only to step on the crowd's enthusiasm

with a pretty major asterisk.

Given the immense scale

of suffering in Gaza,

there must be an immediate ceasefire,

for at least the next six weeks,

which is what is currently on the table.

As calls for peace go,

that is right up there with,

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,"

"for a two month trial period,

after which, you can put it back up."

Harris forgot

the cardinal rule there,

that bad news should always come first.

There is a reason that conversations

at the hospital don't go,

"Your husband's going to live."

"Thank you so much, doctor."

"For the next six weeks, too late,

you thanked me, no takebacks, bye!"

But we're going to focus tonight

on the 2024 election,

specifically, one of the down-ballot

races that took place on Tuesday.

Because North Carolina

Republicans chose their candidate

for governor this fall,

Mark Robinson.

He's currently

the state's lieutenant governor,

and won the nomination

on the strength of, among other things,

this high-profile endorsement.

This is Martin Luther King

on steroids, okay?

I told that to Mark.

I said, "I think you're better

than Martin Luther King."

"I think you are

Martin Luther King times two."

And he looked at me,

and I wasn't sure, was he angry,

because that's a terrible thing to say,

or was he complimented?

I have never figured it out.

Right?

When I said that to you,

you looked like,

"I don't know if I like that comment."

You should like it.

There is a lot there.

From starting with, "I think you are

Martin Luther King times two,"

as if the only way for Tr*mp

to gauge Black people

is in factors of the other one

he knows,

to the way that he said

"you should" like it.

Do you know how r*cist you have to be

to give a Black person a compliment

that starts by quantifying their human

value, and then ends with a demand?

It's a lot. Although, Robinson's

reaction to Tr*mp's compliment

might have been hard to read because

his own feelings on MLK are,

at best, complicated.

He's called him a communist

on his Facebook page,

and on a podcast appearance in 2018,

expressed skepticism

more generally about the movement

that King helped lead.

Robinson references what he calls

the, quote,

"so-called civil rights movement."

At one point, he talks about

the sit-in movement in the '60s.

That movement began at Woolworth's

in Greensboro

when the restaurant refused

to serve Blacks at the counter.

Robinson referred to the movement

as ridiculous

and took aim at the civil rights

movement itself.

So many things were lost during

the civil rights movement.

So many freedoms were lost during

the civil rights movement.

They shouldn't have been lost.

That is genuinely shocking.

Not so much that someone is making

controversial, inaccurate claims

about the civil rights movement

on a podcast,

but that it's happening without Joe

Rogan occasionally popping in to say,

"That's wild, bro,"

before pivoting to an ad for a protein

supplement that promises

to make your d*ck veinier.

If you're wondering what on Earth

Robinson meant by that,

his argument was that the sit-in

participants in Greensboro

shouldn't have demanded to be allowed

to eat at segregated restaurants,

because that cost us the liberties

of a free-market system.

Which is the argument

not just of an assh*le,

but an assh*le on steroids.

An assh*le times two, if you will.

So, Robinson has some extreme views.

Some of them are par for the course

for a Tr*mp-endorsed conservative,

but he can still express them

in striking ways.

For instance, he's a supporter

of book bans

and a staunch opponent

of LGBTQ rights,

which he summed up in one

appearance at a church like this.

Ain't but two genders.

Two genders.

They're dragging our kids down

into the pit of hell,

trying to teach 'em that mess

in our schools.

Tell you like this, that ain't

got no place at no school.

Two plus two don't equal

transgender. It equals four.

I mean, to be fair, it does.

He is right about

the very last thing there.

It's actually a great discursive tactic,

finish an incomprehensibly offensive

rant with one incontrovertible fact.

I'll show you. Seagulls have

no business being birds.

They're rats with wings,

undeserving of flight.

The capital of Turkmenistan

isn't seagulls. It's Ashgabat!

Whatever weird sh*t I said about

seagulls beforehand,

your instinctive takeaway is,

"I admit, he was technically

right about the last bit."

Robinson also has some pretty intense,

if unsurprising, views on abortion.

He's said the goal is to get it down

to being banned after six weeks,

and then just keep moving from there,

and justifies his position like this.

We're talking about a culture

that we have created in this society

that tells you, when you want

to feel good, go on, go in there,

and go lay down and do your thing,

and if you get in a little trouble,

it's all right to m*rder somebody

to get out of it. It is not!

You need to be the one in control

of your body.

And once you make a baby, it's not

your body anymore.

It's y'alls body.

That is pretty bad!

Though it sounds less like a stance

on abortion

and more like what Tommy Lee Jones

would say about Vincent D'Onofrio

in "Men in Black."

"When a space cockroach wears

your skin like a suit,"

"it's not your body anymore.

It's y'alls body."

Although, I will say, if the women

of this country do think it's all right

to m*rder someone

to get out of trouble,

they are currently showing

incredible restraint.

Robinson's whole career has been built

on saying attention-grabbing things.

His big break came just six years ago,

when he spoke at a city council

meeting in support of g*n rights,

and referred to himself

as "the majority"

in opposition

to "loonies from the left."

It quickly went viral, making him

a conservative rising star overnight.

But his journey to that point

actually began online.

If you read his memoir,

which I do not advise,

he talks about how, when he first

joined Facebook in 2007,

"I did so for one reason and one

reason only:"

"to talk about professional wrestling."

But then, quickly realized that he could

get more attention for saying

wild political stuff

and making awful memes,

explaining, "I wanted to be as

demonstrative as possible,"

"because I wanted people to,

as the guy said, come at me, bro."

"I wanted people to read my page

and go 'did he really say that?'"

"And that's what happened."

And boy, did he get his wish.

Because people have been going

through his Facebook page,

and I'm guessing, saying exactly that.

Robinson has a history of making

statements on social media

that Jews and others consider

to be antisemitic.

He said the movie "Black Panther"

was, quote,

"created by an agnostic Jew to pull the

shekels out of your Schvartze pockets,"

using the Yiddish words for "money"

and "Black."

Asked about those comments today,

Robinson said they were poorly worded.

I don't think the problem was

that they were poorly worded.

Poorly worded is something like, "You

have been broken up with by me."

I think the main issue there was

his flagrant antisemitism.

This guy clearly isn't

Martin Luther King on steroids.

If anything, he's much more like

your shittiest uncle on Ambien.

Because he has a long history

of willfully provocative posts,

including one where he complains that

the liberal media are always talking

about the "six million Jews" k*lled

in the Holocaust, in scare quotes.

He also once quoted h*tler on Facebook

and then defended it by saying

that quoting him doesn't mean

he supports him,

and that, "I guess every history book

in America supports h*tler now."

Which is bullshit

for a bunch of reasons,

including that a history book

and a personal Facebook page

are very different. Context matters.

That's why you'll never see a

motivational poster at HomeGoods

that says, "'Never lose hope,

be persistent and stubborn,"

"and never give up. Ted Kaczynski."

Actual quote, by the way.

It's pretty nice.

But wait, 'cause there's more.

He's also referred to the Parkland

sh**ting survivors

as "these silly little immature

media prosti-tots,"

posted this image of himself

with a sign reading,

"Beyoncé's songs sound like Satanic

chants, change my mind,"

and has said, "I truly believe

that the judgement' format"

"of these reality competition shows

like American Idol,"

"Dancing with the Stars and Chopped

is a sign of things to come"

"in the reality of the new world order."

A bonkers take

that he explained by saying,

"The format of these shows reminds me

of Stalin's show trials"

"where people were lined up

and judged then ex*cuted."

"Of course, no one is being k*lled,

but all the elements are still there."

"Sometimes I think these shows are

setting people's mind"

"on this type of format

for a more sinister reason."

And while that seems very unlikely,

if we did learn that Dancing

with the Stars was secretly

a state-led brainwashing campaign

to get us more comfortable

with public executions,

I'd immediately have a hell

of a lot more respect for that show.

At least it'd be trying

something daring,

rather than have a Chmerkovskiy brother

perform yet another uninspired foxtrot.

Again and again, Robinson has gone

out of his way to say

the worst things

in the most provocative way.

We are called, getting ready to get

in trouble, called to be led by men!

God sent women out when

he was supposed to do,

when they had to do that thing,

but when it was time to face

down Goliath,

sent David, not Davita, David

When it was time to lead

the Israelites out of Israel,

he sent Moses, not Momma Moses,

Daddy Moses!

See, God knew what he was doing

when he made men big and hairy

and ugly 'cause you're supposed

to scare away predators,

whether they're in the woods

or standing in front of your kids

in elementary school.

What is going on there?

Is this a sermon

or are you working on stuff

for a shitty Netflix special?

If you're gonna make the argument

that men are better leaders

because they can fight,

those are two terrible examples.

When did David

or Moses ever throw hands?

They defeated their enemies through,

respectively, a slingshot and magic.

One thing any gender can do,

and the other, nobody can!

Also, "big and hairy and ugly?"

This twink? Please.

And look, we're almost certainly not

done learning things about Robinson.

But the depressing truth is,

he's not an outlier.

He's a pretty good marker

for where his party is today.

Because Republicans have gotten

steadily more radicalized

on sites like Facebook,

and it was just a matter of time until

online trolls crossed over

from ranting about policy to writing it.

It is all pretty bleak, but hopefully,

if the people of North Carolina

do the right thing this November,

the number of years this particular

troll serves as governor

won't be two plus two.

It'll be f*cking zero. And now, this.

And Now: C-SPAN Callers Show Once

Again Why They're America at Its Best.

I am a 25-year-old, turning 26,

so I'm still under

my parent's health care.

With my birthday coming up, I'm going

to have to switch over to Obamacare.

Is cost a concern?

Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know,

I have a small cock.

I have a tiny penis and…

Eric from Cedartown, Georgia.

If you lose weight, what will happen?

Well, if you lose five pounds, the male

will gain one inch on his penis.

Okay, caller, we'll leave it there.

With all this happening,

there's an example that I think

I'd like to compare it to,

I can't remember the last time that

I was able to renew my subscription

with my penis enlargement…

I was actually in D.C. last week

and I had the pleasure of seeing

the Washington Monument

and, believe it or not, it looked

exactly like my erect penis.

We'll move on.

You know, cyberbullying has actually

affected me personally, too.

This guy told me I had a tiny cock.

We're gonna move on to Michael

in Huntsville, Alabama.

- Hi, am I on?

- You are, go ahead.

Hi, I would just like to talk about

how my d*ck is huge as f*ck…

Russell, Houston, Texas.

We were pulling for you to run

for president yourself,

but your support of Mitt Romney

means I'm supporting him as well.

Mitt Romney has very high

expectations for the campaign

and for his victory

in the New Hampshire primary.

I was wondering, what size lead

do you think he needs to avoid

a disappointment, and also how big

is Mitt Romney's penis?

Moving on. Our main story tonight

concerns medicine.

The thing that Tums technically are,

even though personally,

I consider them candy.

Medicine is obviously a high-stakes

profession, and mistakes can happen,

as evidenced by scenes like this,

from the procedural drama

"9-1-1: Lone Star".

Fred? No pulse.

I'm starting compressions.

Cap, medical's here.

Okay!

You've probably got a lot of questions,

so let's dive straight in.

"Why did that guy's chest cave in?"

He was frozen. "How did he get

so frozen?"

He got stuck in his in-home

cryotherapy chamber.

"What?"

He was a billionaire who had a

cryotherapy chamber in his home,

and got stuck in it

after getting paralyzed

because of the poison that he'd

been trying to use to k*ll his wife,

this lady, with whom he had

an open marriage,

and who, yes, good guess,

was f*cking Rob Lowe.

And finally, "Why was

that man's chest hollow?"

Honestly, I'm not sure about that one.

I didn't think cold temperatures

automatically turned human beings

into hollow chocolate bunnies,

but I admit, I'm not a doctor.

In that case, the mistake of performing

chest compressions

on a man who is frozen solid,

at most, added insult to injury.

But in other instances, medical errors

can have far more dire consequences.

And they're more common

than you might think.

A 2016 analysis concluded that more

than 250,000 deaths per year

are due to medical error in the U.S.,

making it the third leading cause

of death.

Now, I should say,

most of those errors are systemic,

rooted in things like poorly coordinated

care or fragmented insurance networks.

And good doctors can make

honest mistakes,

the human body, after all, is a sloppy

puzzle of wet nooks and dry crannies.

Every inch of this skin sack

is confusing.

So, let me be clear: this isn't going

to be a takedown of medicine.

I don't want anyone to spin this

into a headline that says,

"John Oliver, Champion of Illness

and Death, Finally Destroys Doctors."

Doctors are great!

They're one of the top things any parent

would say they want their kids to be,

besides "engineers"

and "just like, not annoying".

The vast majority of doctors

are dedicated professionals

who strive to meet reasonable

standards of care for their patients.

But a small fraction aren't,

and can end up doing sh*t like this.

A doctor performs surgery

on the wrong baby.

There's no excuse for operating

on the wrong baby.

The 52-year-old doctor

actually admitted to using dr*gs

while conducting

his medical practice.

In videos she posted online,

Dr. Windell Davis-Boutte is both

dancing dermatologist

and singing surgeon.

She mugs for the camera

and raps with an unconscious

patient inches away.

Look, there are many situations

where it's appropriate to dance,

like at a wedding, or when a cartoon

r*cist sh**t at your feet,

or on a certain grave.

But "in the middle of surgery"

is not on the list!

There is a reason

the Hippocratic Oath doesn't go:

"First, do no harm.

Then, slide to the left!"

That doctor, unsurprisingly, has been

sued multiple times by patients,

who claimed her negligence

left them d*sfigured,

and in one case, brain damaged.

And those sort of errors,

ones caused by negligence,

incompetence, or misconduct,

are a cause for serious concern.

Because a very small number

of doctors can commit a lot of them.

In fact, one analysis found that less

than 2% of physicians were responsible

for half the money paid out in

malpractice suits over 25 years.

Now, the good news is,

there's a regulatory body

that's supposed to protect us from

bad doctors, state medical boards.

These are the panels whose job it is

to issue licenses,

suspend them, or in extreme cases,

take them away.

Hospitals can fire a doctor,

patients can sue them,

but only a state medical board

can ensure

that they never practice medicine

in your state again.

That dancing doctor was suspended

by her state's board.

But that's actually a pretty rare

occurrence,

because the percentage of physicians

who face any sort of real consequences

from medical boards

can be surprisingly low.

One study found that, nationwide,

of nearly 900 physicians

who had been judged by their own

peers to be an immediate thr*at

to health or safety,

only around half had ever had

licensure action taken against them.

And there are doctors who will tell you

that this is a problem.

Like this one, who actually

ran Mississippi's medical board.

What folks have to realize is that

the medical board

is not a substantial barrier

to them being injured by a physician.

Well, that's not great news.

It's probably one of the least

reassuring things a doctor could say,

besides, "Oopsies!"

or, "I'm running for Senate".

So, given that these boards seem

so lax, and the stakes are so high,

tonight, let's talk about

state medical boards.

And let's start with how

they're supposed to work.

While boards' processes vary widely

from state to state, very basically,

when a board gets a complaint,

they review it

and if they find it credible,

investigate.

And if they want to take action,

like suspending or taking away

a license,

that can start a lot of negotiations

between the doctor and the board.

So, it's a long process

that can be very expensive.

Which is a problem,

given that many medical boards

are strapped for resources.

California's, for instance, has openly

called itself "severely underfunded,"

and an outside monitor found that

that has led to delays, disruptions,

and other investigation deficiencies.

And that may help explain why,

in many states,

cases can move very slowly.

One local news investigation in Nevada

found that some cases had spent

up to seven years under investigation

with no resolution.

And think about that.

That means, if a case was resolved

today, it could've been filed in 2017!

In that time frame,

we've had a global pandemic,

a president who looked directly

at a solar eclipse,

an armed insurrection,

a different president who ended

a speech on g*n control with,

"God save the Queen, man,"

a Sophie Turner/Joe Jonas wedding,

a Sophie Turner/Joe Jonas divorce,

and the entire series run

of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

Seven years is just seven years,

but it's also 6 000 years.

And all the while,

doctors can continue to practice.

Boards can continue deliberating,

even if a doctor's been convicted

of a crime.

Take Dr. Ghyasuddin Syed.

A few years ago, he pled guilty

to conspiracy

for funneling lab testing to a company

in exchange for kickbacks,

but even after that,

Texas' medical board was still

deciding what to do about his license.

Which is especially wild because

this was by no means

his first go-around with the board.

In 2016, the board found Syed "failed

to meet an adequate standard of care."

In 2019, the board found he was

prescribing dr*gs to patients

he should not have been.

And just last year, the board ruled

the doctor behaved inappropriately

with three female patients.

Syed kept his medical license

through all of it. Has it right now.

Is still seeing patients!

You've been convicted of a serious

crime by the federal government.

You're going to report to prison

in a few months.

Yeah.

That's some oddly upbeat

energy there,

given the question

that he's responding to.

He was still practicing medicine

when that interview happened!

For all we know, there was a patient

waiting for their appointment to start,

wondering what the holdup was,

and then the nurse came in and said,

"Dr. Syed will be right with you,

he's currently on the news

admitting, weirdly happily,

that he's going to prison.

Just go ahead and put on a gown."

And the fact that doctors can keep

treating patients

while their case goes through

the system can be infuriating

to anyone who gets hurt in that time.

Take this woman, who says she

underwent a botched cosmetic surgery

that resulted in sepsis and

an unplanned double mastectomy.

It was only afterwards

that she learned some troubling details

about her doctor, and a prior case

he'd had where a patient d*ed.

The medical board of California had

actually reached a decision

about Dr. Malavi in the 2018

patient death this past May,

but it wasn't until October

that decision took effect

and Malavi's medical license

was suspended.

It was within that five-month window

in August,

before any discipline,

that Millie had her surgery.

I think that things need to change.

I think that the laws need to change.

I think the medical board

needs to change.

I mean, I'm a hairdresser

and the state board of cosmetology

is so on you.

I mean, for hair.

Why isn't it like that for our doctors?

She's right. And look, I say this as

someone who has gone through

my fair share of high-stakes

hair butcherings in the past,

but even I think medicine should

be regulated more tightly than hair.

So, medical boards

can be underfunded and slow,

and patients can suffer in the gaps.

But the problem isn't just one

of resources,

it's also who is on these boards.

Because most are made up heavily

of doctors, which makes sense!

There are many scenarios where

physicians have to make

difficult decisions that only other

medical professionals

can effectively judge.

But it's generally agreed that boards

should also feature public members,

like advocates, who can speak

on behalf of patients.

The thing is,

that doesn't always happen.

The federation of state medical

boards recommends

that the public should make up

a quarter of each board's membership,

but only about half the boards across

the nation meet that standard.

In fact, up until recently,

Louisiana's board didn't have a single

member who wasn't a physician.

And that can be a problem because

doctors tend to protect their own.

Just listen to this man, who served

as one of the non-physician members

on California's board, describe

what he saw in the room.

The way they speak is always

with doctor care in mind.

You never hear patient care ever.

And I mean ever.

Do you think the way the medical

board functions

in the state of California actually

ends up costing patient lives?

There's no question

that it costs patients' lives.

It's not ideal if a board never thinks

of patient care,

since patient care is kind of doctors'

whole thing.

Without patients, doctors

are really just failed urine collectors.

That guy has actually called

for California to be much stricter

with physician misconduct,

and it's kind of telling the extent

to which some of the doctors

who served on that board with him

didn't appreciate his input.

One physician member on the board

chastised Watkins last month

for rocking the boat.

In my eight years on this board,

I have not encountered another board

member who has been

so negative about our process

as Mr. Watkins.

That's pretty harsh. Although, I have

to say, I have not encountered

another person who looks more like

a long-lost member

of the Tr*mp legal team.

He looks like someone you'd expect

to see selling scalped tickets

for a Bon Jovi concert outside

Madison Square Garden.

I could go on, but I won't.

Except, you know what,

I will actually do just one more.

He looks like the "before" photo in a

Rogaine commercial starring Al Pacino.

Now I am actually done.

But also, I will say, saying that

you've never encountered someone

so negative about your medical

board's process might say less

about that guy, than it does about

your process.

Because reticence about punishing

fellow doctors is part

of a much bigger problem

in the culture of medicine,

it's a phenomenon so common,

it's been called

"the white coat code of silence".

In fact, even when medical boards

initially hand down harsh punishments,

doctors can still negotiate lighter

sanctions with them,

which boards, too often,

can contrive weird excuses to do.

Take this case, of a doctor who

was eventually convicted

for illegally writing prescriptions

for over a million pain pills.

In 2016, the board's own records

show he was suspended

for operating an unlicensed

pain management clinic,

where nearly 10,000 prescriptions for

controlled substances were written.

But 10 months later,

the board lifted his suspension.

In its records, the board cites factors

like he "expressed remorse,"

had a genuine misunderstanding

of pain management requirements,

and was "a very young

and inexperienced physician,"

even though he was 46 at the time,

and had been practicing

for over a decade.

I don't know if 46 counts

as "young and inexperienced."

I'm 46, and I've been doing this job

for over a decade,

and people could say

many things about me.

He's squawky, he's hyper,

he seems more like a coked-up

Sotheby's auctioneer than a comedian,

if it weren't for how much he hates

everything about Sotheby's.

But no one would say

"very young and inexperienced".

It's just objectively not true.

This leniency can even extend

to doctors who've engaged

in sexual misconduct.

A 2016 investigation found that some

doctors who sexually violated patients

were returned to practice with as little

as a three-day course

on appropriate doctor-patient

boundaries.

Which really doesn't seem like enough.

If you'd asked me to guess how long

they should face discipline for,

I'd definitely say something longer

than one Lollapalooza.

In fact, nationwide,

that investigation found

of the 2,400 doctors publicly

disciplined for sexual misconduct,

half still had active medical licenses.

And this was particularly bad

in some states.

Georgia and Kansas, for example,

allowed two of every three

of those doctors to return

to practice,

while in Minnesota,

it was four of every five.

Which is so bad, I'd like to propose

a new state slogan for Minnesota.

"Land of 10,000…

Actually, forget about our lakes,

someone needs to figure out what's

going on with the doctors here. Jesus!"

So, to recap: punishments

for doctors can be rare,

light, and dangerously slow in coming.

And there is one more issue here,

which is that you may simply

never find out about them.

A recent survey found that it remains

too difficult for the public to find

complete information about physicians

on their state medical board websites,

due both to poorly designed

and confusing websites

and to gaps in the types

of available information.

What that means is that sometimes,

the only way people learn

about a doctor's past is if a news

organization looks into it.

This man's mother's leg was left

paralyzed after a spinal surgery,

and when CBS looked

into the doctor involved,

they discovered some awful facts.

We dug through state

and court records and found

that Dr. Svabek lost his surgical

privileges at two Indianapolis hospitals

after his "practice fell below

the standard of care"

and concerns were raised about

his "honesty and truthfulness".

Dr. Svabek has settled five suits

over more than a decade,

the most of any orthopedic surgeon

in Indiana in the last 20 years.

I don't know

if you're aware of this or not.

I had no idea. You know, kind of like

whenever you buy a car,

it has a Carfax. You know, it's almost

like a doctor should have a doctor fax.

Yeah, there probably should be!

Because doctors know everything

about us,

if we smoke, if we're depressed,

how deep all of our holes go,

but we know next to nothing

about them.

Now, the good news is, there actually

is something like that,

the National Practitioner Data Bank,

or NPDB.

It's a federal repository of information

on medical practitioners

including board discipline, hospital

discipline, and malpractice payments.

Which sounds great!

Unfortunately, you can't access it.

It's only available to hospitals,

medical boards,

and a few select medical

and government entities.

On top of which, not all problem

doctors show up in it.

In fact, over the past 13 years,

of the over 6,000 hospitals

in this country,

only around a third submitted at least

one report on action they've taken

against a doctor.

Which feels suspicious,

'cause I doubt two-thirds of hospitals

have gone 13 years

without a single doctor f*cking up.

One reason for that is that hospitals

can find ways to skirt

the reporting requirements.

For instance, they're required to report

a doctor who loses privileges

for more than 30 days,

but sometimes, hospitals

will just limit the term to 29 days,

so it doesn't have to be reported.

And this can be for multiple reasons,

including an investment

in their doctors' reputations.

In New Hampshire, this top-earning

cardiac surgeon was once featured

in ads for his hospital.

But even as he was racking up

what would become

one of the worst surgical malpractice

records among all physicians in the US,

the hospital seemed anxious

to downplay it.

So much so,

that even after a serious incident,

when he was on call, but did not come

to the hospital for hours

despite repeated phone requests

to deal with a patient

having a life-threatening situation,

he was suspended for 28 days,

a number conveniently just shy

of what would've been required

for him to be reported to the database.

And I would say that that was the most

shameless coverup in a hospital

that I've ever seen, but I have seen

this episode of "Melrose Place",

where Dr. Kimberly Shaw tries

to throw people off the scent

of her involvement in a hit-and-run.

Think about it. The driver of that car

was wearing a short blond wig.

Now, how could I get all of this hair

under something like that?

This answer your question?

You're a dead man, Fielding.

That is television right there!

Step aside, "9-1-1: Lone Star",

"Melrose Place" walked

so that you could run.

But even if a doctor is reported

to the database,

that report still might not be seen

because, incredibly,

some state medical boards simply

don't check it when granting licenses

to doctors who've moved from out

of state.

In 2017, 13 state boards

didn't check it once.

And some states,

including, until recently, Texas,

even employ

an honor-system approach,

which relies on physicians

to self-report.

But guess what? The bad doctors

tend not to do that,

because, you know,

they're bad doctors!

So, unsurprisingly, when a Texas

news station bothered to look into

who was practicing in their state,

they found 49 doctors who'd had their

medical licenses suspended,

revoked, or surrendered

in other states.

And some of the stories

were shocking.

Among the doctors currently practicing

in Texas,

a Colorado neurosurgeon disciplined

for performing surgery

on the wrong spinal disc.

A Wisconsin orthopedic surgeon whose

license was suspended indefinitely

for operating on a patient

while intoxicated.

And a Florida doctor reprimanded

for prescribing, quote,

"excessive quantities of oxycodone,"

leading to a patient's death.

All of them still showing

a clean record in Texas.

It's true. A surgeon who operated on

the wrong part of someone's spine

still had a clean bill of health

in Texas.

And you know who probably doesn't?

His f*cking patient.

But it's not just Texas.

At least 500 physicians who have

been publicly disciplined, chastised

or barred from practicing

by one state medical board

have been allowed to practice

elsewhere with a clean license.

And some have almost made

an art of it,

like this cosmetic surgeon,

who was disciplined in 2015

after a patient's death in Oregon.

He then began practicing in Illinois,

where he was investigated

after another patient d*ed in 2016.

Five years after that, Illinois' medical

board declared him

an immediate danger to the health

and safety of the public

and suspended him

for at least 18 months.

But you'll never guess

what happened next.

Despite being found to be grossly

negligent in multiple cases

across two states,

Dr. Sharma still held an active

medical license in one state, Indiana.

We're working late today.

And as we discovered,

he's actively practicing there today.

Yeah, he wasn't just still practicing,

he was broadcasting it online, too.

And general tip: if any part of your

"get ready with me" routine

involves scrubbing up,

stop recording right now!

Because there are a few things I just

never want to see my doctor do:

cry, get drunk, or say,

"Hey guys, welcome to my channel,

we're workin' late tonight,"

over my unconscious nude body.

But the larger fact is,

if you are a doctor with a trail

of irreparable harm behind you,

it seems that you can just hop

around until you find a state

that'll look the other way.

It's just one of ways that doctors

are like Catholic priests,

along with having fun outfits

that are just fancy pajamas

and quietly thinking they're God.

And incidentally,

if you want to check yourself

whether a doctor's been disciplined

out-of-state, that might be difficult.

Because a survey a few years ago

found that the medical board websites

in all these places don't include

actions taken in other states.

Honestly,

based on what we've seen so far,

the best thing you can do as a patient

to successfully vet your doctor

might be to check TikTok

to see if they're posting videos

of their surgeries online,

because that seems to be the only

surefire sign of disaster.

So, what can we do here?

Well, first, we need to acknowledge

that doctors have

powerful lobbying groups that have

fought medical board reform hard,

so change is going to be difficult.

How difficult it's going to be?

Well, in researching this story,

we found this CBS report from nearly

40 years ago

that could've aired last week.

It featured a bad doctor

who'd moved from state to state

to avoid consequences, and this

explanation of the larger problem.

The Massachusetts board, indeed,

most state boards, suffer

from underfinancing, understaffing,

and under-organization.

The board here employs

only two investigators.

Because the boards are staffed mostly

by doctors, consumers, lawmakers,

and even some doctors

are now asking

whether the medical community

can police its own

and still provide quality care.

Most doctors in this country

are practicing good medicine.

Most of the 400,000 doctors,

but perhaps 10, 20, 30, 40,000 doctors

are not practicing good medicine.

Most of them are never disciplined.

It's too dangerous a situation

to keep tolerating.

Yeah, it is too dangerous a situation

to keep tolerating,

but it seems like we've done it.

Because that is from

four decades ago.

It's this whole story, with warning

signs about funding

and calls for reform, all told by,

let's be honest, a much hotter me.

But regardless…

You laughed too hard at that.

But regardless, there are some

obvious steps that we could take here.

Lawmakers could add more public

members to state medical boards

and increase their funding.

They could also require that

all disciplinary actions taken

against a doctor in whatever

state they've worked in,

plus info like malpractice settlements

and hospital discipline,

be easy to find on a public website.

And while we're talking transparency,

the NPDB was created

exactly for that reason,

so state boards should be required

to regularly use it.

Look, the vast majority of doctors

help people

and are worthy of the value

that society places in them.

But this is a field that relies,

pretty uniquely, on absolute trust.

And again, I am not saying that all

or even most doctors are bad,

nor am I telling doctors

how to do their jobs.

I'm only 46, so I'm very young

and inexperienced.

But what I am saying

is that it would serve everyone,

including those many good doctors,

to fix this mess,

because the way we've been running

medical boards is a bit like giving CPR

to a frozen solid man,

it's absolutely baffling, and I cannot

believe someone ever thought

it was a good idea. And now, this.

And Now: People on TV Love to Talk

About Their Big f*ckin' Heads.

These are cute, but they're huge.

- Yeah, they really are huge.

- Maybe 'cause our heads are huge.

Do you have one of those big melons?

I have a large head.

You have such a great hat head.

I have a giant head

that needs to be covered.

You always look great in a hat.

I have a huge head. This makes

my head look bigger.

- I don't think it does.

- I got a big noggin.

Can I borrow your hat?

Always need a hat.

It's all right, I got a big head.

I have a giant head, highlighted

by this angle right now, I'm sorry.

I've got a giant head, Scott,

there's a big head and neck.

He has a big head, many people

say I have a big head.

Don't tell anybody

I have a big head.

We both have large heads.

I have a big head too.

Makes my butt look smaller.

Is it extra big for my big head?

Jen and I are always debating

who has the bigger head.

I said, "Who?" She goes,

"You win." I go, "Wait, what?"

- You won or I do?

- I did.

My head is a half an inch bigger

than yours.

So, just so you know, as measured

by the professionals,

I'm a winner, my head's huge.

That's our show, thanks so much

for watching,

we'll see you next week,

good night!