Members of the Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts said state law made it difficult for them to keep the public safe from dangerous doctors.

Soon, they may have a state law that gives them a little more muscle.

On Friday, the Missouri Legislature sent Gov. Jay Nixon a bill that would give the board more power to suspend incompetent and impaired doctors and provide patients with more information about their doctors.

The reforms were inspired by a Post-Dispatch investigation last year that found the state's policing of doctors to be among the nation's most lax and least transparent.

Nixon said he was still reviewing the bill but said it was "a step forward in clarifying and strengthening many sections of the law to help better discipline bad doctors and improve patient safety." If the governor signs the bill, it will take effect Aug. 28.

Sen. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, the bill's sponsor in the Senate, said he hopes the new bill sends a message: Do a better job protecting patients. He said the board already had tools to protect the public.

"If this is the catalyst to make them use those tools — great," Engler said.

The board's longtime executive director, Tina Steinman, declined to comment through a spokesman. The board president, Dr. David Poggemeier of St. Peters, could not be reached at his office.

Missouri law already gives the board the authority to immediately suspend dangerous doctors, but the Post-Dispatch investigation found the board had not used that power in at least 25 years. Board officials complained that the current law makes it too difficult for them to prove a doctor poses a danger.

The board's failure to use its suspension power "isn't because they can't," said Bonnie Bowles, a lobbyist for an association of Missouri osteopathic physicians. "It's because they don't."

The new bill would make it easier for the board to prove that a doctor is a threat. It also would streamline the process of filing a complaint with the state administrative hearing commission.

An earlier version of the bill would have let the board decide on emergency suspensions without filing an administrative case. Bowles successfully lobbied lawmakers to remove that clause, arguing that the doctors deserved the same due process "that we would give a criminal in a court of law."

The bill also would let the board conduct a hearing if it believes that a doctor is unfit to practice because of incompetency, mental illness or substance abuse. The doctor could then be ordered to submit to evaluations, and failure could lead to discipline.

The board currently must take these cases to the state administrative hearing commission, where they sometimes languish for years.

Patient advocates said they were glad to see the move to give the healing arts board given increased powers and hope the board improves on its disciplinary record.

"This is a step in the right direction," said D.K. Raymer, founder of the Springfield, Mo.-based HealthCare Patient Safety Investigation, a nonprofit patient advocacy group. "But having power to do something and actually exercising the power are two different things, so we'll see what they do with it."

The bill would also give patients more information about doctors.

Right now, patients who search for a doctor's name on a state website find only the doctor's address, date of licensure and details about past discipline.

Under the new bill, patients could learn about doctors' education and certifications, disciplinary actions in other states and pending disciplinary cases.

"The public should know that information previously was shielded," said Doug Crews of the Missouri Press Association, who spoke in favor of the bill at a February hearing. "I think it's good that the Legislature moved in that direction, to provide a more educated public regarding their physicians."