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Source: Star Tribune Minneapolis MN Last update: September 24, 2006 – 11:35 PM Give doctor a Web scan
Want
to do a background check on your doctor? The Minnesota Board of Medical
Practice just made it easier for consumers to see profiles of the
state's 18,000 physicians and 1,000 physician assistants on its website.
Want to do a background check on your doctor? The Minnesota Board of
Medical Practice just made it easier for consumers to see profiles of
the state's 18,000 physicians and 1,000 physician assistants on its
website.
It's part of a bigger move toward better accountability and transparency in the health care industry. In addition to a doctor's pedigree, address and specialty, the site also gives full reports on disciplinary action and lists criminal convictions, although the latter is self-reported and not verified by the board. The Minnesota Medical Association said it's OK with the material because it's all in the public record. The physician profile can be found at www.bmp.state.mn.us. Go to "top links" and click on "professional profile." Physicians and physician assistants can be searched by name and/or specialty. A board task force is collecting malpractice data to determine whether there should be a category for legal action in the individual profiles. Women majority One of the biggest mutual fund complexes is now overseen by a board in which women make up the majority. Former Gov. Arne Carlson, since 1999 chairman of RiverSource Funds -- the former American Express Funds -- last week announced the election of three directors that brings to six the number of women on the 11-person board charged with representing the interests of investors in the funds. The new directors include Kathleen Blatz, former chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court; Jeffrey Laikind, former managing director of Shikiar Asset Management, and Vikki Pryor, president and CEO of SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Co. Inc. "While it's uncertain whether this is the first major board to have a majority of women, it does represent the changing climate in corporate America, particularly in mutual funds," Carlson said. He said 10 of the 11 members of the RiverSource Funds board are independent directors and have no financial interest or business ties to parent company Ameriprise Financial Inc. The board is charged with ensuring that Ameriprise focuses on delivering good returns and services at reasonable cost to shareholders. Diversity analysis A new look at diversity programs could overturn current wisdom, based on an analysis of 800 U.S. companies over 30 years by researchers including Erin Kelly, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota. They found three approaches most effective in boosting the numbers of women and blacks to management: A diversity task force, a staff person dedicated to diversity issues, and affirmative action plans. Least effective, they concluded, were two of corporate America's favorite choices: Diversity training and making diversity efforts part of managers' evaluations. In the middle were networking programs and mentoring programs that target traditionally disadvantaged groups. "Our argument is there are changes where you put someone in charge and you give them the authority to keep the issue on top management's agenda, to keep monitoring it," Kelly said. Before painting diversity training with a broad brush, though, Kelly's fellow researchers plan a follow-up analysis, "because we know they vary widely, and they'll look at what might be going on that averages out to no effect." DAVID PHELPS, H.J. CUMMINS, NEAL ST. ANTHONY |
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