A few weeks ago, a client asked me a common question, "Will bad doctors be disciplined as a result of my medical malpractice case?" The simple answer, "Probably not." Hard news to swallow for medical malpractice victims and their family members.
In Illinois, the Department of Professional Regulation (DPR), an agency under the governor, is supposed to act as the state's watchdog over doctors and others in the medical industry. Last year, the Legislative Audit Commission, the General Assembly's investigative arm into the operation of state departments, released a report that found in nearly seven out of ten cases where the DPR took disciplinary action against a doctor, little or no investigation was done.
Even more surprising, out of 135 malpractice-settlement reports mandatorily filed with the DPR by insurance companies (representing $38 million in payoffs), the agency had taken no disciplinary action against any of the doctors involved and more than half of the malpractice cases were closed without investigation. The research seemed to suggest that the DPR was allowing doctors to be negligent without forcing disciplinary action or at the minimum, holding a thorough investigation.
The Coalition for Consumer Rights, along with Families Advocating Injury Reduction (FAIR), have been long time critics of the DPR and released a report in March of 1998. The report concluded that the DPR continues to reject recommendations for improvements, has yet to implement changes already agreed to and continues to hand out false and misleading information on licensed medical providers. Their report also showed that while DPR's total doctor disciplines for 1997 had increased to 125 from 83 the year before (most for minor infractions such as not renewing licenses), the rate of various disciplines per 1,000 doctors actually fell two-tenths of a percent.
Another potential problem is that the Illinois State Medical Society has consistently been the number one campaign contributor to the DPR. There are those that feel that even though the DPR is headed in the right direction for protecting the public, big campaign dollars could make the DPR apologists for health care providers instead of disciplinarians.
As awareness grows out of the concerns of citizens and consumer groups, the DPR has found itself making the department more consumer friendly and at the same time, educating people as to what they can do when they do have a complaint. But, little has been made of the bad doctors who continue to injure patients. The fact is that serious actions, ones that removed the doctor from patient contact, declined from 1996 to 1997, both in total and in proportion to the number of doctors licensed. The DPR had not exercised its ultimate authority to expel doctors who demonstrated a risk to patients and the public.
While the mass majority of doctor's and other professionals in the health care field do offer the highest level of care to their patients, it seems obvious that a tougher system has to be in place for those select few that do not. Hopefully, pressures from the Coalition for Consumer Rights along with FAIR, will gently push the DPR forward, getting bad doctors out of medicine.
For now, pressure from the public must continue in order to force the DPR to take seriously its mandate to police health professionals and remove bad providers from patient contact.
[Sources: Coalition for Consumer Rights, March 1998, The State Journal-Register, Springfield, Illinois, March 1998]