Published by MedPage Today, The Los Angeles Times and Kaiser Health News.
To reduce deaths and hospitalizations from narcotic drugs, the Medical Board of California has launched a major effort to find doctors who prescribed controlled substances to patients for whom narcotics ultimately proved lethal.
These stories, published by MedPage Today and more recently, other publications such as the Los Angeles Times through Kaiser Health News, reveal how the agency has been reviewing the state’s prescription drug database, CURES, to see which doctors prescribed any dangerous drugs to patients who died in 2012 and 2013. The agency then obtained that patient’s medical records from those doctors as part of an investigation of that doctor’s practice. In some cases those investigations are leading to accusations intended to end certain physicians’ ability to practice medicine.
As of Sept. 3, 2019, the board has filed accusations against 64 physicians that it said stemmed from its review of death certificates. It also has placed hundreds more doctors under investigation because that database revealed other prescribing practices the board said violate guidelines for good practice. The Board of Registered Nursing has filed accusations against four nurse practitioners who have “nurse practitioner furnishing” certificates, and one of those four has surrendered her license.
Here are the stories to date that MedPage Today, Kaiser Health News and the Los Angeles Times have published about this effort. They reflect the extreme concern expressed by physicians and others that the effort may, inadvertently, result in more patient harm, when physicians who fear the board’s wrath refuse to prescribe any drugs at all to patients in need.
Nov. 17, 2020 • California Medical Board to Revise Dreaded Death Certificate Project
— 2019 death data suggest frightful consequence: doubling of fatal overdoses versus earlier years
https://bit.ly/3nC821p
Sept. 11, 2019 • Four Nurse Practitioners Accused in Calif. Death Certificate Project
— One surrendered license; another accused of coming to work “wobbly,” “drugged,” and “under the influence”
https://bit.ly/2kne5Mj
Sept. 3, 2019 • Death Certificate Project Accuses 64 Calif. Doctors
— Five surrender licenses after claims of grossly negligent overprescribing; more to come
https://bit.ly/2k4EXAn
Feb. 4, 2019 • Methodology Fixes Coming for Calif. Death Certificate Project
— 50 physicians accused; are pain patients being abandoned?
https://bit.ly/2BlG8RA
Jan. 17, 2019 • Los Angeles Times via Kaiser Health News
Doctors call California’s probe of opioid deaths a ‘witch hunt’
https://lat.ms/2FJWruw
Dec. 21, 2018 • Foundation Wants Revamp in Calif.’s Death Certificate Project
— CHCF urges medical board to focus on current outlier prescribers, not long-ago patient deaths
https://bit.ly/2GAaQeO
Nov. 6, 2018 • Calif.’s ‘Death Certificate Project’ Nabs 11 More Physicians
— State medical association wants study to evaluate agency’s fairness
https://bit.ly/2PgqfVf
Nov. 2, 2018 • ‘I Had Not Kept Up’: A Physician Re-Education Story
–Patient’s overdose made Jeoffry Gordon, MD, recognize he didn’t know everything
https://bit.ly/2PGjDyU
Sept. 12, 2018 • Provider Groups Hit Back at California’s Death Certificate Project
— “Witch hunt” said to be sowing fear in medical community
https://bit.ly/2COETx9
Sept. 10, 2018 • KPBS Midday Edition with Alison St. John
‘Death Certificate Project’ Threatens Disciplinary Action Against Doctors Who Overprescribe Opioids
https://bit.ly/2Ok0Qpu
Sept. 5, 2018 • The 10 Calif. Docs Accused of Overprescribing Opioids
— Complaints cite “gross negligence,” “incredibly high” doses — and bad penmanship
https://bit.ly/2QgSDno
Aug. 30, 2018 • ‘Death Certificate Project’ Terrifies California Doctors
— Hundreds threatened with disciplinary action for opioid scripts to patients who overdosed
https://bit.ly/2wKDouM