Do you think an ACEP member serving as an expert witness violated the guidelines and should be subject to disciplinary action? There is a process to which all members of ACEP have access: the filing of a complaint alleging that another member has violated one of the College’s policies regarding ethical conduct. The “Procedures for Addressing Charges of Ethical Violations and Other Misconduct” are at www.acep.org.

You should be prepared to submit documentation of just what the expert witness said (or wrote) that you believe violated the guidelines. Your complaint should be as specific as possible. (“He said, right here on page 44 of the transcript of his deposition, that no one with lower abdominal pain should be sent home without a CAT scan to rule out appendicitis.”)

Who will sit in judgment of the conduct of the expert witness? This responsibility begins with the Ethics Committee (or a subcommittee thereof). The member filing the complaint (complainant) and the member against whom the complaint is filed (respondent) provide all relevant documentation they believe supports their respective positions. This is then

reviewed and discussed by the subcommittee, which must formulate a recommendation to the Board of Directors of the College. If disciplinary action is recommended, it may take the form of censure, suspension, or expulsion. Censure may be private or public. Suspension of or expulsion from ACEP membership and a description of the conduct that led to such action is reportable to the Boards of Medical Examiners in the states in which the physician is licensed, which may result in a report to the National Practitioner Databank. The Board of Directors then considers the ethics subcommittee’s recommendation. The Board may dismiss the complaint. If, however, the Board finds that the complaint may, indeed, warrant disciplinary action, the respondent is offered the opportunity for a hearing before the Board.

This process may sound complicated or intimidating. But if you’ve been sued, it’s nothing compared with what you’ve already been through. Most important, it is designed to conform to the due process requirements of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA). And it’s important for you to know that your College takes the problem of unethical expert witness testimony very seriously. Do you think you have grounds for a complaint against another member? Call ACEP at 1-800-798-1822 and ask to speak to our General Counsel, Cal Chaney, J.D.