The relationship between promotions committees’ identification of problem medical students and subsequent state medical board actions

Abstract

Studies have found unprofessional behavior in medical school was associated with disciplinary action by state medical boards. For medical schools, promotions committees are responsible for identifying which students do not demonstrate academic performance and professional behavior acceptable for promotion and graduation. The objective of this study was to determine if student identification by promotions committees during medical school was associated with disciplinary actions by state medical boards later in practice. We reviewed 20 years of promotions committees’ records from a single institution and noted students identified by promotions committees for performance or behavioral issues. These were compared with disciplinary action reports from the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) for graduates. Over the two decades, 2,131 students matriculated and 2,078 of these graduated. The promotions committees identified 140 students for poor academic performance or behavioral problems (140/2,078, 6.7 %). Of these, 108 students graduated. FSMB records showed 29 of the 2,078 graduates had sanctions by state boards (29/2,078, 1.4 %). Only four students that had actions by state medical boards were among the 108 graduated students identified by medical school promotions committees (4/108, 3.7 %). Of the students not identified by promotions committees, 25 eventually had disciplinary actions (25/1,970, 1.3 %). The odds of having state medical board action if identified by promotions committees was 3.0 (CI 1.02–8.8, p < 0.05). In conclusion, identification of students by medical school promotions committees was later associated with state medical board actions. However, most graduates with state medical board actions were not identified by medical school promotions committees.