Disadvantaged Physicians: The Ill-fated Connection between Hospital Immunity and Sham Peer Review

Abstract

An important responsibility of hospitals is to assure the quality of the medical care they provide. One of the key pillars of quality assurance is a committee of local peers to determine the professional competence of physicians. On occasion, incompetence or disruptive behavior of a clinician is found to have caused patient harm. The peer review committee holds the deficient physician accountable and the hospital uses their authority to impose swift corrective action ranging from remedial education, proctoring or the restriction or revocation of hospital privileges [1].