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Survey: 4 in 10 Seniors Don't Take Drugs as Directed

Date Added: 20-04-2005

Wyoming came in first and Hawaii last in a ranking of U.S. state medical boards released Tuesday by Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

Public Citizen based its rankings on Federation of State Medical Boards' data on disciplinary action taken against doctors from 2002 to 2004. The group calculated the rate of serious disciplinary actions -- revocations, surrenders, suspensions and probation/restrictions -- per 1,000 doctors in each state for each year.

Overall, there were 3,296 serious disciplinary actions taken by state medical boards in 2004, an increase of 10.1 percent from 2,992 such actions in 2003.

The three-year state disciplinary rates ranged from 10.04 serious actions per 1,000 doctors in Wyoming to 1.44 serious actions per 1,000 doctors in Hawaii. That's a seven-fold difference between the best and worst states, Public Citizen noted.

After Wyoming, the next four top states were Kentucky, North Dakota, Alaska and Oklahoma. After Hawaii, the next four worst states were Delaware, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Maryland.

For More Information: http://www.healthcentral.com/news/NewsFullText.cfm?id=1506124