Physician Disciplinary Actions Grow
The Illinois Financial and Professional Regulation Department took 281 disciplinary actions against doctors last year, a 17 percent increase over 2004 and more than double the number of actions in 2001.
This was reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim Ritter, "State turns up heat on docs" (September 3, 2006).
Further statistics include: "Between 2003 and 2005, Illinois took 4.1 serious actions per 1,000 doctors. By comparison, disciplinary rates were more than twice as high in the three toughest states, Kentucky, Alaska and Wyoming. But Illinois' rate was 2-1/2 times higher than that of the bottom state, Mississippi."
The main reasons for discipline are cited as impairment or incompetence. Some attribute this to the stresses of the job.
Of course, this is entirely different from disciplinary investigation solely on the basis of using CAM therapies...explored elsewhere in this blog, and also in statutes aimed to protect medical doctors from discipline solely based on the integration of complementary and alternative medical therapies such as homeopathy, nutritional and herbal therapy, or even mind-body therapies such as visualization.
One of the most surprising statistics: "Researchers concluded that at least one-third of all doctors will at some point in their careers have a condition that impairs their ability to practice medicine safely."
The Practice of Integrative Medicine: A Legal and Operational Guide is now available from Springer.
One of the transformations facing health care in the twenty-first century is the safe, effective, and appropriate integration of
Michael H. Cohen's novel A Question of Time is about consciousness. Gabriel Goodman takes a vacation from his law firm
Legal Issues in Integrative Medicine: A Guide for Clinicians, Hosptials, and Patients by Michael H. Cohen (National Acupuncture Foundation,
In Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Legal Boundaries and Regulatory Perspectives, Michael H. Cohen breaks new ground in putting together the
In Beyond Complementary Medicine, Michael H. Cohen goes deeper into the legal, ethical, and regulatory aspects of integrating complementary and
Future Medicine by Michael H. Cohen is an investigation into the clinical, legal, ethical, and regulatory changes occurring in our
What happens when a Wall Street lawyer, steeped in Judaism, enters an interfaith seminary, engages mystically, and connects with disincarnate