RECORDS

NEWSPAPER SUED TO SEE RECORDS

* Similar information about civilian doctors named in malpractice suits is public; much military information is still being kept secret

Published: Sunday, October 5, 1997
Page: 12A
By Wes Hills DAYTON DAILY NEWS
NEWS

UNNECESSARY DANGER: MILITARY MEDICINE

Sidebar to Part 1

Those databases, along with thousands of pages of other records, were obtained through dozens of requests made under the federal Freedom of Information Act, a law that allows citizens access to information about their government.

Some of those records were released only after the Daily News filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Dayton. The court has not ruled on whether to make public several more databases the military is refusing to release.

One of those databases, TORT2, identifies military doctors linked to legal claims for medical malpractice. The same types of records on civilian doctors are available to the public.

For weeks, the Department of Defense lawyers told the federal court that the newspaper had the TORT2 database. Later, the attorneys said they had not been aware the database existed.

The Air Force and Army refused requests for computer records identifying the qualifications of their doctors. The Navy did provide such a database.

The Air Force also refused to release large portions of its database on legal claims, including the amounts taxpayers spent to settle the malpractice cases. The Air Force had refused to identify bases accused of malpractice until U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice ordered them to do so.

The services argue that a federal law makes it illegal to make public many of the records. The federal law specifically protects the military from having to release records on the quality of its doctors.

One attorney representing the services said that release of such quality assurance records could inhibit those called on to review claims of medical malpractice "from free and open comment and criticism.... They may be afraid to take action."