Easier Access to Veterinarian Disciplinary Records Needed

In line with the recent post found here about Pharmacy Boards making their disciplinary records more transparent, state veterinary boards also need to make their disciplinary records more transparent.  This article found here sums up the problem:

I have more complaints filed against me than a used-car lot not that you ll ever know about it.

When she picked up her kitten, Pumpkin, from the veterinarian after a routine spaying, Mount Pleasant, S.C., resident Marcia Rosenberg was stunned to find the cat nearly comatose. Soon Pumpkin s body was wracked with seizures, and her stomach swelled. Rosenberg rushed Pumpkin to another vet, who saved the cat, but the distraught owner called her state s veterinary board to complain. Told that the board had no procedure for alerting consumers about disciplinary actions taken against incompetent vets, Rosenberg mounted a successful campaign to have such actions posted on the South Carolina veterinary board s website.

Tracking complaints against vets often requires a bit of detective work. Some state veterinary boards list disciplinary actions against vets, while others do not. And complaints typically aren' t disclosed until a board investigation and judicial ruling have determined a case of wrongdoing. On her own, Rosenberg says she was able to find that the veterinarian had previously had his license suspended in Ohio and since then had more than a dozen complaints against him in South Carolina.