Look Up Your Doctor’s Qualifications, Paid Malpractice Claims and Any Disciplinary Actions On-Line

Here are a few of the ways to look up information about doctors online. Please note that the following 3 links will take you to websites controlled by others and thus we are not responsible for the content.

FLORIDA DOCTORS

1. Look up a Florida physician’s medical license 

   Start with this site to get basic physician identifying information. To search for a doctor on this site, you do not need to know the exact spelling of the doctor’s first or middle name or even precise city or county his office. Once you find the doctor here, this site gives you his legal name, his address, and license number. When looking at the doctor's license information you will also see a direct link to look up the doctor on the next site listed below.

2. Look up a Florida physician’s profile online

   This site offers several types of information about physicians, including their board certifications, any medical school attended, residency training, other states where licensed, awards, criminal convictions and some discipline and malpractice information. Unfortunately, the information on this site is supplied by the physicians themselves and thus the site warns you that none of the information is verified by the State of Florida. Given the foregoing, the absence of negative information about a physician on this site does not necessarily mean that the physician has no existing claims, but the presence of negative information may be useful. When you are looking at a physician's malpractice claims information on this site you will also see a link to the next site listed below.

3. Look up a Florida physician’s paid malpractice claims

   This site, which is maintained on the Internet by the Florida Department of Financial Services (f/k/a Dept. of Insurance), offers information on the claims paid by malpractice insurance companies for doctors and hospitals.  Very few states offer this type of information to the public. You should do your search in the category of "all" counties because negligent doctors tend to move, and also watch for variations of both physician and hospital names. Hospitals tend to change names frequently, and sometimes physicians are listed by their middle name. Given the foregoing, begin your search by just using the last name. While this paid malpractice claim database offers very useful information, unfortunately the following information is NOT included on the site:

   • Pending malpractice cases
   • Cases the physician may have won on a technicality like the statute of limitations
   • Claims in other states
   • Claims paid by the physician personally rather than by an insurance company
   • Disciplinary actions brought by the State of Florida
   • Disciplinary actions by hospitals against the physician
   • Claims paid but inadvertently not reported by an insurance company

Claims against certain doctors when they
were practicing at "teaching hospitals"

Open and ongoing lawsuits, or lawsuits resulting in judgments which have not been paid, can usually only be looked up by going to the individual State Circuit Court locations in each county where the physician may have been sued.

Other Sources of Doctor Information

To get basic information about any physician, no matter what state he or she practices in, go to the American Medical Association Physician Select site. This site allegedly provides information on every licensed physician in the United States and its territories, including more than 650,000 doctors of medicine (MD) and doctors of osteopathy or osteopathic medicine (DO). Searches can be done by name or medical specialty. Results include generic information like address, specialty, medical school and residency programs attended, and whether or not board certified. However, this site does NOT contain information on malpractice claims, medical negligence suits, insurance payments or disciplinary history.

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