Re: Illinois physicians profiled on state’s new
From: Rafael Haciski (haciski@earthlink.net)
Tue Apr 8 21:17:58 2008
How come the lawyers are not listed?
Or did I miss that listing?
--
Rafael Haciski MD FACOG
Anchor Health Centers GYN
800 Goodlette Rd #360
239-643-8780 office
239-571-0292 cell
Naples, FL.
On Apr 8, 2008, at 9:06 AM, Dean Huffman . wrote:
> .
>
> Illinois physicians profiled on state’s new Web site
>
> By DEAN OLSEN, STAFF WRITER
>
> Tuesday, April 08, 2008
>
> More information about Illinois’ doctors, including out-of-court
> settlements of
> malpractice lawsuits, is now available on a new Web site operated
> by the
> state.
>
> Advertisement
> The physician profiles available at http://www.idfpr.com provide that
> information and
> much more data that previously wasn’t available in one place on the
> Internet,
> such as doctors’ specialties, education, hospital affiliations and
> whether they
> accept Medicaid, All Kids or certain types of private insurance.
>
> That information is reported by doctors, who must keep it current
> to continue
> practicing.
>
> The site also lists information the Illinois Department of
> Financial and
> Professional Regulation previously hadn’t made public, such as any
> felony
> convictions for the past five years, serious misdemeanor
> convictions, and the
> most controversial data — the most recent five years of malpractice
> judgments
> and settlements.
>
> The president of the Sangamon County Medical Society hopes that
> patients looking
> for doctors won’t rule out certain practitioners simply because of
> malpractice
> settlements listed.
>
> “I don’t think that most physicians are opposed to people knowing
> about this
> information,” Dr. J. Eric Bleyer said Monday. “The problem is people
> interpreting this information.”
>
> He added, however, that any potential drawbacks of the physician
> profile Web
> site — which went online for the first time late last week — are
> more than
> offset by the short- and long-term benefits of caps on medical-
> malpractice
> judgments against doctors and hospitals.
>
> Those caps, and the newly published data about doctors, were part
> of the same
> 2005 legislation that was passed by the Illinois General Assembly
> and signed
> into law byGov. Rod Blagojevich.
>
> The governor, in a news release, said: “It’s not enough to make
> sure every
> Illinois family has access to health care. We need to make sure
> that people
> have enough information to make informed decisions about the
> doctors who treat
> them.”
>
> A proponent of the new profile information, state Rep. Mary
> Flowers, D-Chicago,
> said patients deserve the data, can give proper weight to the
> malpractice case
> information and use it in discussions with doctors.
>
> “You are purchasing a service,” she said. “You should be able to
> know some
> background. It’s really just an introduction to a person you’re
> about to expose
> your naked body and soul to.”
>
> Susan Hofer, spokeswoman for the Department of Financial and
> Professional
> Regulation, which runs the Web site, said the doctor profiles
> received 77,200
> “hits” over the weekend.
>
> “There’s a definite desire to know more about the doctors who treat
> us,” she
> said.
>
> The legislation creating the public database also created caps on
> non-economic
> damages such as “pain and suffering” — $500,000 for doctors and $1
> million for
> hospitals. Those caps have been challenged in a Cook County case
> pending in
> front of the Illinois Supreme Court.
>
> But the database remains in effect even though it could be shut
> down if the high
> court throws out the caps and the rest of the legislation.
>
> The DFPR, on its Web site, previously listed disciplines taken by
> the department
> against the state’s 44,000 licensed physicians.
>
> Malpractice judgments are public in courthouses, but many
> settlements of
> malpractice lawsuits are handled out of court and haven’t been
> available to the
> public anywhere, until now.
>
> The Web site lists the settlement amount, the date and the county
> involved, with
> the data provided by courts and insurance companies.
>
> Springfield resident Jeri Frederick, 52, a single mother who works
> as a
> professional trainer at the University of Illinois at Springfield,
> said the
> criminal, malpractice and insurance data “would be helpful” in
> choosing a
> doctor.
>
> She said she wouldn’t rule out a doctor with a malpractice
> settlement, “because
> we have a society that is ‘lawsuit happy.’ I don’t think it should
> be the last
> word. It should be a guideline for you to look for more information.”
>
> Flowers said she sponsored physician-profile legislation for more
> than a decade,
> without success, until she was able to get inserted it into the
> compromise bill
> that received support from the Illinois State Medical Society.
>
> The medical society previously opposed publishing physician profiles,
> specifically the malpractice case information, she said.
>
> A growing number of states are making the information public, she
> said, and she
> agreed with Bleyer that the settlement of a malpractice case doesn’t
> necessarily mean a doctor is inept.
>
> “It’s just a snapshot,” she said, adding that she will work to pass
> legislation
> to broaden the profile database to include other health
> professionals such as
> dentists and chiropractors.
>
> Bleyer said some doctors, such as neurosurgeons, orthopedic
> surgeons and
> obstetricians, are more likely to be sued because they attract
> patients with
> complicated health problems who are more likely to experience
> complications.
>
> And even a malpractice judgment against a doctor may not mean he or
> she is a bad
> doctor, Bleyer said.
>
> Dr. Ronald Romanelli, a Springfield orthopedic surgeon, said the
> state Web site
> could help him in screening potential new doctors for his medical
> group,
> Orthopaedic Center of Illinois.
>
> He had no strong feeling about whether public reporting of malpractice
> settlements is a good thing. But Romanelli, 53, who said he’s never
> been sued
> for malpractice, believes some doctors could lose patients when the
> information
> becomes public.
>
> “Unfortunately, there are bad circumstances and situations where
> patients have a
> bad outcome,” he said, “and it’s not always where the physician is the
> problem.”
>
> Dean Olsen can be reached at 788-1543.
>
> http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/28268.asp
>
