Semmelweis Society International and Semmelweis Medical Education Foundation seek an end to biased medical peer review. Without reform, patients will continue to lose their physicians to libel; at the end of the day, we are all patients...

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Dr. Butler is President of the Semmelweis Society, leading the effort to reform the Health Care Quality Improvement Act while seeing to it that no medical school graduate enters the practice without a healthy understanding of the contractual obligations that await. By protecting honest physicians we can protect patient's health. Here is a small collection of his letters and opinions.

"In my opinion, anything other than M&M is moot, as in legal proceeding or as in court of law, and American citizens need due process of law to conduct a proceeding, legal or otherwise.
     I met Dr. Waite, founder of Semmelweis Society, at the American College of Surgeons' Clinical Congress 20 years ago.  He had just successfully sued a nurse for libel, but that is not easily done today because of HCQIA.  The continued use of Medicare funds to sustain libel in peer review is unconscionable for anyone considering this profession:  The law encourages avoidable bureaucratic waste of American taxpayers' money. It is time the turn the money changers out of the temple of medicine. We can no longer afford having Medicare support spending over 30% of our hospital funds on hospital administration which distracts doctors from treating patients.
     There is nothing to stop us from improving safety in a non-punitive way, but first we must stop talking about patients as 'customers' and doctors as 'providers,' because at the end of the day, we are all patients.     Tumor Board is a model for prospective cooperation in peer-review among physicians:  Outside experts can be brought in as needed for fairness."

Letter to Congressman Waxman: "I was instructed by Captain Sidney Ranck, by his account on the instruction of Captain Thomas Cullison, NOT to testify on behalf of a Jewish surgeon at a competency hearing being held in Groton, Connecticut." full story...

Letter to Eileen P. Keenan, Investigator, DoD Inspector General: "It is ironic that I have been censured after trying to improve safety for patients, much as has been reported in the press last month in both civilian and federal medicine " full story...

Letter to AMA President, D. Palmisano, JD MD: "Would you support Patrick today, and if so, will you support state and Federal legislation for independent, impartial peer review..." full story...