The state medical licensing board in November will consider for the first time mandating extensive criminal background checks for doctors, an agency spokesman said Friday.

Currently, teachers and day-care workers in South Carolina are subject to mandatory examinations to determine if they have criminal histories. But physicians, whose jobs require close and sometimes invasive contact with patients, are exempt from such scrutiny by the state.

Details of the medical board plan were not immediately available, but spokesman Jim Knight said a draft calls for a change in state law to pave the way for national screening of applicants seeking a medical license. States must authorize access to the FBI criminal database when they want to use it for matters that do not involve police or courts.

Looking into criminal backgrounds of doctors became an issue last week when it was disclosed that a West Columbia physician, Dr. James M. Shortt, did not report a 1966 felony conviction in Michigan on his S.C. license application.

Shortt, a doctor who practices alternative medicine, is being investigated by police and medical regulators after a 53-year-old patient in his care died when she was given hydrogen peroxide and other compounds intravenously to treat multiple sclerosis, a sometimes debilitating disease of the brain and spinal cord.

A coroner has ruled the death of Katherine Bibeau of Minneapolis a homicide. No charges have been filed.

Hydrogen peroxide, often used to disinfect wounds, is not recommended for internal use. However, some alternative-health proponents believe injections or intravenous infusions of hydrogen peroxide can treat ailments such as cancer, MS, arthritis and shingles by killing toxins, bacteria and viruses.

PATIENTS, DOCTORS MAY DIFFER

Some patient advocates support screening physicians for possible crimes.

“We know that the majority of physicians are qualified, honorable people,” said Dave Almeida, executive director of the S.C. chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

“But when anyone is dealing with very vulnerable people, we think prudence is the best course of action.

“We don’t have an official position on that,” Almeida said of mandated background checks, “but frankly, it sounds like a no-brainer.”

Dr. John Evans, president of the S.C. Medical Association, would not take a position on required screening of doctors.

“We support any procedures that would promote patient safety,” he said.

But the privacy of doctors applying for licenses should be protected in the process, he said.

CHECKS NOT STANDARD PRACTICE

Most states do not mandate criminal background checks, according to a national survey by an organization of medical boards.

At least 10 states require them, the Federation of State Medical Boards found in a survey this year.

However, the survey’s findings are limited, because a copy of the report shows no responses from 19 states. It also incorrectly lists South Carolina as requiring in-state criminal history checks.

The 10 states that require in-state and federal background checks through the FBI do not require them of all applicants, the survey shows. The FBI checks use fingerprints and compare them to a national database of people charged with a crime.

Nevada, for example, screens only osteopaths, doctors who embrace holistic medicine.

Other states that require in-state and national background checks are North Carolina, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico and North Dakota, according to the survey.

Four other states — Maine, New Jersey, Texas and Washington — require only in-state checks.

Besides South Carolina, at least 10 states do not require any checks. They are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

The Federation of State Medical Boards, based in Dallas, has not taken a public stand on whether background checks should be mandated, spokeswoman Katherine Poteet said.

N.C. TIGHTENED REGULATIONS

North Carolina changed its law in 2002 to require national background checks after the licensing board found some applicants misrepresented their criminal histories, said Dena Marshall, the board’s spokeswoman.

Most either said they had forgotten about the charge or thought it had been cleared from their records, Marshall said.

That is what Shortt said of his 1966 conviction in Michigan for carrying a concealed switchblade when he was 19. He said he thought the conviction would be removed from his record when he joined the Army in 1967.

All N.C. applicants were subjected to national background checks beginning in February 2003.

“You want to know when you walk in to see a doctor that they have gone through screening,” said N.C. Medical Society spokesman Mike Edwards.The physicians’ group supported the change in the law, he said.

The medical board does not know how many applicants have been denied licenses because of their criminal histories, Marshall said.

EQUALITY AMONG PROFESSIONS

Georgia’s medical board in Atlanta has talked about mandatory criminal background screening but has taken no action, said Dr. Jim McNutt, its medical director.

The Georgia medical board does such checks as needed, he said.

But mandated screening for doctors would require a change in the Georgia law. Most job applicants must grant permission, either in writing or by submitting to fingerprinting, before a background check can be done, said McNutt and John Bankhead, spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

“It’s actually a pretty complicated issue,” McNutt said.

Yet Georgia has mandated screening for firefighters and people who work with children or the elderly, Bankhead said.

Columbia attorney Richard Gergel represents the Bibeau family in its lawsuit against Shortt for injecting her with hydrogen peroxide.

Different treatment among professions in South Carolina galls him.

“If you want to be a day-care worker in South Carolina, you are subject to a criminal background check, as you should be,” Gergel said.

“If you want to teach school, you are subject to a criminal background check, as you should.

“But if you want to practice medicine, do surgery or even infuse someone with hydrogen peroxide, you don’t need a criminal background check.

“If they (medical examiners) are not doing the most basic checks ... that’s irresponsible.”

Staff Writer Linda H. Lamb contributed to this article. Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664 or cleblanc@thestate.com. Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett@thestate.com