Editorial: The state takes much too long to act against bad doctors
For decades, there’s been a brutal tug of war over medical malpractice in Florida. On one side, the often-villainized trial attorneys who have caught criticism for taking massive cuts of settlements meant to help injured patients. On the other, the army of insurance, corporate health-care and medical providers’ lobbyists who consistently seek to restrict victims of malpractice from claiming compensation for their injuries.
Editorial: Florida, end ‘free kill’ law that shelters malpractice from justice
And what side do these injured patients fall on? Really, it’s neither. Instead they are the rope. In Florida’s adversarial civil-justice system, they are the most powerless. And so state laws are constantly being crafted to offer a little bit to both sides. That’s how travesties like Florida’s “Free Kill” law, which effectively bars families from filing lawsuits after the death of someone who is unmarried, over the age of 25, or lacks children under the age of 25.
Realistically, that tension will never let up. But there’s another path to justice, one that is supposed to be purely motivated by a concern for state oversight into the quality of care.
Discipline moves too slowly
Every health-care provider in Florida — every doctor, every nurse, every chiropractor, x-ray technician or respiratory therapist — is licensed by the state. When they are caught in acts of blatant malpractice that deprive patients of quality care, those licenses provide a way for the state to discipline them.
Unfortunately, that happens too rarely, particularly with those at the top of the medical-care decision chain. The state boards that oversee these licenses often take an excruciatingly long time to investigate and resolve complaints. That allows bad doctors and others to continue practicing, and injuring more patients.
Our sister paper, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, took a look in 2017 at the state’s performance when it comes to getting rid of the worst offenders. They found cases where the Board of Medicine took years to act, even in cases of clear malpractice that had often resulted in numerous dead, maimed or suffering Florida patients. Had the Board of Medicine done its job, many of those injuries might never have occurred.
Delay means more injury
Have things gotten better? Judge for yourself: We examined Board of Medicine records for M.D.s whose licenses had been revoked in Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties in 2022. As it turns out, we should not have wasted our time trying to figure out the proper plural form of M.D. There was only one: Thomas Velleff, a Brevard County physician with multiple offenses, most related to abuse of his prescription authority. The first complaints we found dated as far back to 2008, and included five patients who were prescribed opiates or other medications that far exceeded normal levels. A second complaint documented a five-year relationship with a patient who was repeatedly given large prescriptions for controlled, highly addictive drugs. A third Board of Medicine complaint from 2017 accuses Velleff of requesting a $35,000 loan from a seventh patient, who also received repeated high-quantity prescriptions of controlled medication.
After rounds of appeals, Velleff’s license was finally suspended. In April. Of 2023.
Had the first five cases been acted upon, the sixth and seventh complaints never would have moved forward. And a deeper search of records indicates that there are many more cases in progress. But they are moving forward with excruciating slowness.
It’s no wonder so many Floridians turn first to the civil-court system to seek justice. But if the state were quicker and more accurate in identifying offenders and disciplining them, they might be willing to go through that process instead.
So if Florida lawmakers are really serious about reducing the amount of litigation in this state, they’ll put more teeth into the state’s ability to crack down in real, provable cases of medical malpractice. That is the best way to find justice for victims of malpractice, and the best way to protect Floridians from becoming victims in the first place.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com
