Re: Illinois physicians profiled on =?iso-8859-1?b?c3RhdGWScw==?= new Web site
From: Anna Meenan, MD (annam@uic.edu)
Wed Apr 9 18:03:10 2008
Yup. Y'all can look me up. Pretty boring stuff.
--
Anna Meenan, MD, FAAFP
At Tue, 8 Apr 2008, 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
