Collins said neither police agencies nor medical professionals reported unusual behavior to his office.

At least one parent who reported unusual behavior to police said she was never advised to report Bradley’s behavior to licensing officials.

Attorney General Joseph “Beau” Biden said regulations require police, the Medical Society of Delaware, professional staff, colleagues and others who observe inappropriate behavior to report it to the Division of Professional Regulation.

The division investigates allegations and is the authority which can suspend or revoke a physicians license, Biden said.

He said the state solicitor is working to determine who might have known of any inappropriate behavior on Bradley’s part. Biden said state law lists 20 things a physician could do or say that are deemed unprofessional or inappropriate. He said having knowledge of inappropriate behavior and failing to report it carries a fine of up $5,000.

How does a doctor get a license?

Collins said the licensing process gives his office a two-fold way to protect the public: first, it stringently scrutinizes and filters everyone who comes to Delaware to get a license, and second, when a complaint is received, his office investigates and pursues the problem. Collins said both aspects of protecting the public are currently under review as officials attempt to understand how behavior Bradley stands accused of could have escaped regulatory attention for so long

The Division of Professional Regulation requires a doctor seeking a license to submit an application and to coordinate, from original sources, proof of education.

The applicant also must arrange for other states in which they are licensed to send to Delaware licensure verification. Applicants for a Delaware license must show they are licensed, in good standing and have not been disciplined in other states.

The licensing board also checks a federal databank. “All licensing entities are federally mandated to report to the federal databank; medical institutions are required to report also,” Collins said.

If a board of medical practice anywhere in the nation takes an action, then it must be reported to the national data bank, in order to prevent a practitioner who has been disciplined from moving to another jurisdiction.

The database lists all the states a doctor is licensed in, but under current regulations, the database does not include pending investigations.

Bradley was licensed in Delaware in April 1994, Collins said. “We had gotten verification from other states that he was licensed, but pending complaint information is not shared among any of the states.”

While that fact angers many parents whose children might have been abused by Bradley, Collins said it’s a complicated issue. Of the 500 to 600 complaints the agency receives each year, Collins said, “Some are very serious. Some are not. There is a whole host of reasons people file complaints.”

If a complaint is unfounded, he said, meaning that the investigation finds that neither charges nor disciplinary action are warranted, “the way it is across the nation, they don’t become public.”

The policy is accepted practice across the nation, but it is now under review, Collins said.

“At this point, some consideration should be given to sharing complaints among regulatory agencies,” he said, but it will require a lot of discussion before that occurs.

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