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.”