TUCSON, Ariz., Sept. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A physician's career can be permanently ruined by an Adverse Action Report in the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). Although the public believes the NPDB is about protecting patients from harm, it is used by hospitals to destroy good physicians for malicious or anti-competitive reasons, writes Lawrence Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D., in the fall issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

If a hospital imposes a summary suspension that is in effect for more than 30 days, it is reported to the NPDB, probably ending a physician's career. "As soon as a sham summary suspension is imposed, the physician needs to retain an attorney immediately. The physician's attorney will need to accomplish a huge amount of work in a very short time," Dr. Huntoon writes. The attorney needs to file an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) and preliminary injunction (PI).

Dr. Huntoon presents the legal process, the standards for granting a PI, and hospitals' arguments to oppose them.

Dr. Huntoon is an internationally recognized expert on sham peer review, which is a review for purposes other than improving the quality of patient care, an increasingly prevalent problem in the U.S. and other nations.

The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons is published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943.

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SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)