State Medical Board Rankings

Ranked by serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 licensed physicians (2021-2023)

Highest Rate (Most Enforcement) Lowest Rate (Least Enforcement)
1
Ohio 1.82/1,000
2
Wisconsin 1.49/1,000
3
North Dakota 1.39/1,000
4
Michigan 1.37/1,000
5
Illinois 1.35/1,000
6
Alabama 1.34/1,000
7
Kentucky 1.29/1,000
8
Washington 1.17/1,000
9
Colorado 1.07/1,000
10
West Virginia 1.03/1,000
11
New York 1.02/1,000
12
Arizona 0.97/1,000
13
Wyoming 0.95/1,000
14
Oregon 0.91/1,000
15
Alaska 0.90/1,000
16
Maine 0.88/1,000
17
Texas 0.86/1,000
18
Florida 0.85/1,000
19
Virginia 0.85/1,000
20
Vermont 0.85/1,000
21
Arkansas 0.82/1,000
22
Mississippi 0.80/1,000
23
California 0.73/1,000
24
Maryland 0.73/1,000
25
Tennessee 0.72/1,000
26
Missouri 0.69/1,000
27
Oklahoma 0.69/1,000
28
North Carolina 0.64/1,000
29
Nevada 0.63/1,000
30
Kansas 0.60/1,000
31
Minnesota 0.59/1,000
32
Iowa 0.59/1,000
33
New Mexico 0.58/1,000
34
South Dakota 0.57/1,000
35
Montana 0.53/1,000
36
Massachusetts 0.49/1,000
37
Rhode Island 0.48/1,000
38
Nebraska 0.44/1,000
39
Connecticut 0.44/1,000
40
Louisiana 0.43/1,000
41
New Hampshire 0.43/1,000
42
Idaho 0.42/1,000
43
District of Columbia 0.41/1,000
44
Utah 0.39/1,000
45
New Jersey 0.37/1,000
46
Hawaii 0.36/1,000
47
South Carolina 0.34/1,000
48
Delaware 0.31/1,000
49
Pennsylvania 0.30/1,000
50
Georgia 0.24/1,000
51
Indiana 0.17/1,000
National Average
0.81 per 1,000 physicians Median: 0.69 3,735 total serious actions (2021-2023)

What This Ranking Measures (and What It Doesn't)

This list ranks the rate of serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 licensed physicians, not the underlying rate of physician misconduct. A higher rate reflects how many serious board actions were recorded relative to a state's physician population between 2021 and 2023; it does not measure how often misconduct actually occurs. Two states with identical misconduct rates could post very different numbers here if one board investigates and formally sanctions more aggressively, defines "serious" action differently, or has more staff to process complaints. Read this as a measure of enforcement activity, not a state-by-state safety scorecard.

The Spread Between States

Ohio currently posts the highest rate at 1.82 serious actions per 1,000 physicians, while Indiana posts the lowest at 0.17 - roughly a 10.7× difference between the two. The national average is 0.81 per 1,000, and 21 of the 51 states and territories tracked here sit above that average. A gap this wide across states applying broadly similar federal licensing standards is consistent with real differences in board resourcing and enforcement posture, but it can also reflect reporting and classification differences between boards; this dataset alone cannot separate the two.

Source: Public Citizen Health Research Group (HRG 2021-2023 report) · FSMB Physician Census 2023 Public Citizen Health Research Group (HRG 2021-2023 report) · FSMB Physician Census 2023

Every figure on PlainDiscipline is rendered directly from public regulatory source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on public regulatory source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.