AAPS Attorney Confused

Editor:

In response to the article, AAPS Sues NY DOH over Board Certification (EMN 2007;29[3]:1), I feel the AAPS attorney is just a little confused. You see, there is nothing stated in the 14th amendment that is being violated by upholding the current standard of training in emergency medicine or any other specialty for that matter. And the whole concept behind having separate states was that each state was allowed to govern itself.

Even given that idea, however, the state board has nothing to do with board certification. It only grants or removes licenses and investigates complaints. The Department of Health is even further removed from this issue because it can only list the words board certified when that physician has been deemed to be board certified by a recognized board. The DOH has nothing to do with written and oral examinations, and is not acting as an advertising agency for any physician.

When a doctor applies for staff privileges, it will become obvious whether he had residency training and completed his boards. Currently ABEM and ABOEM are the only recognized boards. If the Department of Health starts to give unrecognized boards this privilege, then the 14th amendment with all its general statements will be able to be used by anyone or any group representing physicians to protect everyone else's rights.

So I suspect the AAPS attorney could not find any real legal recourse, but knew he was going to get cheap advertising. Or perhaps he took his bar exam from the American Association for Legal Specialties.

After some thought, I have decided to change my opinion regarding board certification. If AAPS wins this legal battle, then I am going to take the hip replacement exam and begin calling myself a board certified orthopedic surgeon. When some hospital appropriately denies me staff privileges, I will have the ability to sue it based on the ruling of this case and retire. With the right attorney, I could even add sexual harassment or sex discrimination or maybe even a COBRA violation because the hospital denied me the right to be on call when no one else would take it.

Carol Rogala, DO

Yucaipa, CA