How to Check If a Medical License Has Penalties Against it

The trust that a patient establishes with his healthcare provider is part of the Hippocratic oath that a physician pledges to uphold. Sometimes events may occur in a doctor's career that denote a less than assiduous following of the oath and may indicate malpractice. This is information you need to know before entering the care of a new doctor, so looking up his license to see if it is in good standing is key.

Things You'll Need

• Computer with Internet access

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Instructions

• 1

  Acquire the license number of the doctor you are interested in researching. The staff should have no problem giving you this information. If there's a problem, you should consider seeing another physician.

• 2

  Contact the medical board for the state in which the doctor practices. This can be done online in many states. You will need to provide the doctor's full name and license number.

• 3

  Write the state of Arkansas for verification of the doctor's licensing information. Include the doctor's full name.

  Arkansas State Medical Board
  2100 Riverfront Drive
  Little Rock, AR 72202

• 4

  Log onto the Alaska Division of Occupational Licensing website and input the doctor's license number and full name into the required fields to do a professional license search. Colorado doctors can be researched through the Colorado Division of Registrations website. For Delaware doctors, navigate to the State of Delaware Online License Service. In Illinois, look up a doctor on the State of Illinois Division of Professional Regulation site. Indiana has an embedded URL for their licensing look-up. The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure is the online resource for Kentucky doctors. The Missouri Division of Professional Registration has licensing information online. The Ohio License Center website has licensing information online. The Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure & Supervision has online look-up capabilities. Oregon has an online License and Verification Search, and the State of Wisconsin has a Department of Regulation & Licensing resource.

• 5

  Contact the Connecticut State Department of Public Health's website if looking up a Connecticut doctor. You must have the doctor's full name, license and town in which the practice is located. For a Florida doctor, log onto the Florida Department of Health website to search for practitioner profile information. The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine has an online resource. Michigan's Department of Community Health also has an online presence. Nebraska's Department of Health & Human Services provides online verification. Rhode Island's Department of Health has an online search as well as Tennessee. Washington State's Department of Health has online verification.

• 6

  Log onto the State Medical Examiners website for Georgia and Louisiana doctors.

• 7

  Navigate to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts website for physician licensing information.

• 8

  Go directly to Montana's, Utah's, Virginia's or Pennsylvania's state website to access licensing information.

• 9

  Contact the New Jersey Division of Human Affairs for physician licensing information.

• 10

  Navigate to the New York State Office of the Professions website for an online physician look up.