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There are at least a couple of ways to view state medical boards that don’t issue many serious disciplinary actions for physicians. One way is to assume that because the rate of serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 licensed physicians in the state is low, nearly all of the doctors in the state are less likely to be professionally inadequate or engaged in criminal activities than physicians in other states.

That isn’t how the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen views things, however. The nonprofit organization says many state medical boards “are doing a dangerously lax job” of protecting the public.

Public Citizen recently issued a report ranking states by their rates of serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 licensed doctors in each state from 2017 to 2019.

Michigan ranks as the fourth most aggressive with 1.70 serious actions per 1,000 physicians, trailing only Kentucky (2.29), Arizona (1.81) and Pennsylvania (1.78).

The most lenient were Georgia, New Hampshire and the District of Columbia, with 0.32, 0.32 and 0.29 serious actions per 1,000 doctors, respectively.

Public Citizen uses disciplinary actions by medical boards as a measure of how well each state protects patients. “There is no reason to believe that physicians in any one state are more or less likely to be incompetent or miscreant than the physicians in any other state,” the organization stated in its report.

According to a news rep

Licensed professionals of any kind spend years working toward their degree and their professional license. After spending so much time, energy, and money to earn their license, should a professional simply give it all up the first time their license is at risk?

While it is possible to defend a license against serious accusations, it is very easy to make a mistake that puts the license at risk. Here are four mistakes you can avoid to help defend your professional license:

Whenever you discuss the nature of your alleged misconduct or criminal activity, keep things brief. The more you say about the matter, the more ways a board can find a way to take your license. Keep your dialogue and responses short and sweet. When you keep things brief, you can prevent yourself from saying something that could cost you your license.

While a settlement can likely mean that you will keep your license, that does not mean that you should take the first offer you receive. You still can negotiate on your behalf, and you should use it. Negotiations can help you lower the years you remain on probation, how many corrective courses you will have to take, and even how much you may own in fines.

After you receive an accusation of misconduct or criminal activity, you have 15 days to confi