Physician organizations are interfering with efforts to better clean up the medical profession of rogue doctors, critics in the Legislature said Thursday.

“It would seem to me that by their actions they are not taking steps to move it along,” said Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg.

Hutto is one of the authors of an amendment that would allow the public to learn of a complaint once the S.C. Medical Board’s investigative panel files formal charges against a doctor. Only the board or its designee may sanction doctors.

Currently, the public is notified only after the board takes final or emergency public action. The rest of the disciplinary process, by law, is shrouded in secrecy.

The long delay in the board’s consideration of sanctions against West Columbia alternative-medicine physician James Shortt is driving many legislators to call for reforms faster.

Shortt is under federal investigation for suspicion that he illegally prescribed performance-enhancing drugs to members of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and local bodybuilders. In addition, the board and state police are investigating the death of a Shortt patient who got intravenous hydrogen peroxide as a treatment for multiple sclerosis.

Shortt has not been charged with any crime, and the board continues to list him as a physician in good standing.

A senator who Wednesday held up the amendment said he did it because he wants time to study the proposal — not because he is a front for physician groups.

“I’m not carrying their water,” Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Georgetown, said of the physicians groups. “I just want to clean it up so that we do the right thing.”

Under Senate rules, an objection from a single senator can postpone a vote on a bill.

Cleary, a dentist, acknowledged that doctors groups asked him to review the amendment.

Efforts to reach the S.C. Medical Association, a doctors organization that has objected to some efforts to discipline physicians, were unsuccessful.

Hutto’s amendment is co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Jake Knotts of Lexington County, Larry Martin of Pickens County, Harvey Peeler of Cherokee County and Tom Alexander of Oconee County.

Hutto and Cleary say medical organizations have told them they prefer to deal with discipline matters in a larger bill that seeks to update the entire law that governs physician licensing and discipline.

But that bill, drafted by the state medical board, is further behind in the legislative process and would be difficult to enact this year, Hutto and others say.

Cleary said he would read Hutto’s amendment over the weekend and either seek to improve it or withdraw his objection.

Hutto said that if the larger bill in the House does not meet the legislative deadline of getting to the Senate by May 1, he and his supporters will move ahead on the narrower discipline bill.

“I definitely think reforms need to be made this year,” Hutto said.

Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664 or cleblanc@thestate.com.