How The Time Flies in Healthcare

One thing you guys said to me that I was a big aha moment for me when we were first talking about this, um, was the fact that some physicians could have a five star review on Google. And I think we have a couple that we can throw up on the screen, um, that, that are still practicing, but they have some board actions against them. I want you to kind of talk through that with me. Sure. Um, without going into too severe, the specifics, some of the physicians that we have listed here, that they have the reviews and you know, they've got five stars by all, by all evaluations. If you're not from here, you would look at them and go, okay, that's, that's good. And I mean, we're not talking two or three reviews. Some of these have 50 reviews at four and a half stars. You would think, okay, this is a safe place for me to go with both of those examples that were put up. Those are places that if we showed you the board actions there, and we've tested this with our own spouses, they, they wouldn't step foot in those locations. And as a patient, and also again, as a potential provider referring to some of these specialties, you'd want to know that. Yeah, definitely. And you know, it's all kinds. And again, this information is not easily found and I wish it was, but it's not. Explain what a board actions are and what role the Texas Medical Board plays, good and bad. Sure. The Texas Medical Board is comprised of 16 individuals, 11 are physicians, five are what are called lay members who are not physicians or practicing physicians. And their purpose and their mission is to protect Texas residents, you know, from providers, but also to reprimand and discipline providers when they don't practice what's called the standard medicine or best practices when it comes to medicine. And so those board members rotate off of different cycles. And but board action is, is first, it has to come to the board as a complaint of some kind and then they investigate it, which they should, because there are a lot of frivolous complaints. And didn't you say it takes a lot for them to actually take it to an investigation? I think so. Yeah. A lot, a lot for investigation, but especially a lot when there's actually a board action, meaning that they found evidence that supports an action or a judgment for lack of a better word to reprimand in some kind of way, which can include courses that they have to take. You know, some of them can be courses on social issues, things with documentation for medical records. There's a lot of different ways that the board can act, which is good. They should have flexibility to enact the appropriate response. And I think the key factor is, is time. A lot of these things take time. The complaint takes time. The investigation takes time. The action itself takes time. And so all of that has sort of a time consequence and a clock on it for the average consumer of healthcare that, that may not know that any of this is occurring. And so what we hope to do is kind of fill that gap then at that time to say, Hey, this is happening with, with one of the positions that you and your family sees be aware of it. And you get to say, that's a big deal to me, or it's not a big deal to me. But at least I'm aware of it now. And so that, that's really what we're trying to help do is shorten that time span of knowledge of transparency that this has occurred. It is occurring. It's ongoing. There's no final judgment. There's no final board action, but they're in under investigation. You might want to know that before your next appointment. So that's, that's really the place we're trying to fill the need is the time gap where a lot of things can potentially occur. Well, we were talking about a doctor and obviously, you know, just a doctor in North Texas that, you know, had been practicing for many, many, many, many, many years, and then was so practicing for, you know, six to 10 years while he was still being investigated. And whether, you know, I mean, at that point, those six to 10 years, anything can happen, right? That's scary as a, as a parent, as you know, for, you know, finding doctors for myself or for my parents or for anybody knowing that that, that occurs a lot, you know, I mean, cause you can't obviously charge someone until you've gone through the process, but the fact that that's not a, we're not made aware of that to be able to make our own decisions. I love that that that's what you guys are trying to do. Right. Well, and y'all are probably aware that the legal system gets a little bit encumbered sometimes. And from the time that somebody is, you know, convicted of something from the time that they're actually picked up, there's a pretty good gap. That could be three, it could be five years. And unfortunately, some of these physicians, very few by the way, but it's enough that you'd want to take that suspicion just off the table.