In California, a doctor convicted of a sex crime automatically loses his license to practice medicine. It is automatic and permanent.
That’s not what happens in Illinois. A doctor convicted of a sex crime here sometimes escapes discipline — even when his victims are patients, as the Tribune’s Megan Twohey has reported. When a doctor is punished, the discipline can be as tepid as a short suspension of his medical license.
A Chicago-area doctor convicted in 2001 of sexually abusing a Villa Park woman who had sought a bikini-line laser treatment at his Oak Brook office can still practice medicine in Illinois.
So can a Downers Grove doctor convicted of misdemeanor sexual abuse and battery of a Lisle woman who came to his clinic seeking treatment for a severe headache.
An Elk Grove Village family practice physician pleaded guilty in 2008 to criminal sexual abuse of a friend’s 6- and 8-year-old daughters. He told the Tribune he may reapply for his suspended license in 2012.
Incredible.
Illinois law needs to be stronger: Any doctor convicted of a sex offense may never practice medicine in Illinois. It needs to be automatic, like it is in California. And it needs to be permanent.
No second chances.
Right now, there are only two things that trigger an automatic and permanent revocation of a doctor’s license, according to the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation: The doctor has been convicted twice of felonies involving controlled substances, or he has been convicted twice for public aid offenses such as fraudulently billing Medicaid.
It’s time to expand that list.
Credit Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Hinsdale and Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, for leading efforts to prevent dangerous doctors from preying on patients.
Under Dillard’s bill, which recently sailed through the Illinois Senate 57-0, a doctor whose license is revoked because of a sex-crime conviction would need to wait at least five years before he could reapply, compared to three years now. The doctor would also have to get himself removed from the state’s sex offender registry, which normally takes no less than 10 years.
Franks has a better idea: Require by law that the state automatically pull a doctor’s license after he is convicted of sexual assault or battery of a patient. The decision would not be left to the discretion of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which oversees the licensing of doctors.
The department has a history of going easy on some doctors. For instance, the state often places offending doctors in a professional probation program that is overburdened and does little to prevent them from committing more crimes. Who’s watching the doc? Most of the time, no one.
One more thing lawmakers must do: Restore public access to detailed online profiles of doctors. Those profiles include crucial information about whether a doctor has been convicted of a crime, fired by a hospital or forced to make a medical malpractice payment in the last five years.
That information used to be available on the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s Web site. But most of it is now behind electronic lock and key. When the Illinois Supreme Court this year rejected a state law that capped medical malpractice awards, the decision nullified a provision in the law that created easy public access to the doctor profiles.
State Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, is leading efforts to restore that information. She told us she faces fierce opposition from the Illinois State Medical Society, the lobbying organization for doctors.
Let’s make that clear: The Illinois State Medical Society is protecting doctors at your expense.
Come on, lawmakers. Those profiles help patients protect themselves. Let the public see them.
A doctor who sexually abuses a patient is nothing but a predator. He shouldn’t get a second chance.
