Public Citizen's Health Research Group: Questionable Doctors: Illinois

ILLINOIS

1999 serious action rate: 2.05/1000 doctors
1999 ranking: 43rd

In Illinois, there were disciplinary actions reported against 956 doctors including 44 who were disciplined for substance abuse, 82 for misprescribing or overprescribing drugs, 12 for sexual abuse of or sexual misconduct with a patient, 86 for substandard care, incompetence or negligence and 55 who were convicted of a crime.

This web site provides aggregate national and state data on doctor discipline. Names of those doctors and their offenses are NOT included on the site. Web sites with such information need to be frequently updated and we cannot do this because of limited staff and resources available to continually monitor the information that we receive from the 51 MD and 14 DO licensing boards and the federal government. This website does provide direct links to the web sites of those boards that have information available on the internet.

Detailed information on specific doctors who have been disciplined is included in the book which can be purchased in regional editions for $20. The book includes disciplinary actions taken against doctors from 1990 through December 1999.

The Illinois Medical Disciplinary Board sent monthly newsletters covering the period from 1990 through 1999. These reports include the physician's name, city of residence, the type of action taken and, usually, a brief description of the reason for the action. The reports contain no information on modifications or terminations of board orders nor do they contain information on court decisions affecting board actions.

The information provided covers disciplinary actions taken against allopathic physicians (MDs) and osteopathic physicians (DOs).

Besides disciplinary actions taken by the State Medical Board, this listing also includes actions taken by the Medicare/Medicaid programs, the FDA, and the DEA against physicians located in this state. Disciplinary actions taken by other states against physicians located in Illinois or that match a physician disciplined by Illinois are also included.

Illinois Board Internet Address: http://www.dpr.state.il.us

This state has a web site which we have graded B on a scale of A (best) to X (worst) as part of our February 2000 Survey of Doctor Disciplinary Information on State Medical Board Web Sites. This grade is a measure of the completeness of the information on disciplined doctors. Those state licensing boards with web sites make independent choices about the type of information to be included on their site and how often it is updated.

According to the Federation of State Medical Boards, Illinois took 73 serious disciplinary actions against MDs and DOs in 1999. Compared to the 35,581 MDs licensed in the state, the Board had a serious disciplinary action rate of 2.05 serious actions per 1,000 MDs and ranked 43rd on that list (see Table A).

The tables below summarize the data Public Citizen received from Illinois.

Table 1. Disciplinary Actions Against MDs and DOs 1990 through 1999*
Action	Number	Percent**
Revocation	58	4.2%
Surrender	8	0.6%
Suspension	214	15.4%
Probation	396	28.5%
Practice Restriction	2	0.1%
Action Taken Against Controlled Substance License	205	14.7%
Other Actions	507	36.5%
Total Actions	1390	100.0%

* This table lists only the two most serious disciplinary actions taken against a physician.
** Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.

Table 2. Offenses for which MDs and DOs were Disciplined 1990 through 1999*
Offense	Number	Percent
Criminal Conviction	56	5.9%
Sexual Abuse of or Sexual Misconduct with a Patient	12	1.3%
Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence	86	9.1%
Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs	85	9.0%
Substance Abuse	46	4.9%
Disciplinary Action Taken Against License by Another State or Agency	164	17.4%
Other Offenses	496	52.5%
Total Records With Offense Listed	945	100.0%

* Includes only those actions for which an offense was listed and for which we had a corresponding term in our database.

Table 3. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Sexual Abuse of or Sexual Misconduct with a Patient
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	1	5.9%
Suspension	6	35.3%
Emergency Suspension	3	17.6%
Probation	5	29.4%
Fine	1	5.9%
Other Actions	1	5.9%
Total Actions	17	100.0%

Table 4. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Substandard Care, Incompetence or Negligence
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	5	4.4%
Suspension	9	8.0%
Emergency Suspension	1	0.9%
Probation	33	29.2%
Practice Restriction	1	0.9%
Fine	17	15.0%
Reprimand	38	33.6%
Other Actions	9	8.0%
Total Actions	113	100.0%

Table 5. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Criminal Conviction
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	10	12.7%
Suspension	25	31.6%
Emergency Suspension	1	1.3%
Probation	20	25.3%
Fine	5	6.3%
Other Actions	18	22.8%
Total Actions	79	100.0%

Table 6. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Misprescribing or Overprescribing Drugs
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	6	4.1%
Revocation, Surrender, or Suspension of Controlled Substance License	36	24.7%
Suspension	5	3.4%
Probation	54	37.0%
Restriction of Controlled Substance License	31	21.2%
Fine	2	1.4%
Education	1	0.7%
Other Actions	11	7.5%
Total Actions	146	100.0%

Table 7. Disciplinary Actions Taken for Substance Abuse
Action	Number	Percent
Revocation	2	3.0%
Revocation, Surrender, or Suspension of Controlled Substance License	15	22.4%
Suspension	8	11.9%
Emergency Suspension	3	4.5%
Probation	33	49.3%
Restriction of Controlled Substance License	5	7.5%
Other Actions	1	1.5%
Total Actions	67	100.0%

Address
Illinois Department of Professional Regulation
Nikki M. Zollar, Director
James R. Thompson Center
100 West Randolph St, 9-300
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 814-4500

Internet Address: http://www.dpr.state.il.us