Does Physician Licensing Serve a Useful Purpose?

When you need a physician you simply book an appointment and visit one. Of course, you may spend a few moments considering which is the best one for your specific need, but you probably don’t waste much time considering whether they are licensed or even fully qualified.

After all, the state takes care of this, right?

In a perfect world, yes. The state will monitor the creation of any medical practice and ensure it is fully licensed and compliant, for the safety of its clients.

Unfortunately, there remains the possibility that a physician could be practicing without the proper license.

Fortunately, you can verify the status of any physician through the HCP license validation product.

What HCP License Validation Does

HCP license validation will verify for you whether the Health Care Provider is licensed, what state it should be operating in, its current address, the field of specialty, and a whole host of other information.

It will tell you everything you need to know to confirm that the medical professional you want to see is capable of offering you the right service.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t speak to family and friends to see if they have had treatment with a specific physician. Their experiences and social media can be extremely helpful.

Does This Make Licensing Redundant?

Actually, no. The need for licensing remains as important as ever. It can be argued that the licensing authority exists to aid medical professionals, at the very basic level it is an indication that the physician is professionally qualified.

Knowing that a physician is licensed will help you to feel confident about your choice of treatment, being able to verify that license and see any other relevant information will make it easier for you to make the right decision when choosing a physician.

The licensing procedure and even the monitoring of qualified professionals needs to be improved. In many cases licenses are not verified or suspended until there is an issue, this is something that needs to be adapted and improved.

The risk of being sued for malpractice has dramatically increased in recent years, this has made physicians and hospitals more cautious.

But, for this to really have value, it is essential that the licensing boards verify licenses quicker and investigate even small issues. The information can be used by licensing validation products to ensure you know all of the relevant facts about your chosen medical professional.

With the right controls on licensing and the ease of access to data, it should be possible to know exactly what type of care you’ll receive. This could actually reduce the number of incidents of malpractice. Coupling this with an increased level of vigilance and monitoring by hospitals and you may not have a perfect system, but you’ll have something that is significantly better than what is currently available.

This is a guest blog entry.