Megan Twohey reports:
A private program that has long kept secret watch over Illinois doctors receiving substance-abuse treatment is now monitoring health care professionals with sexual misconduct violations — including some convicted of crimes.
Begun several decades ago by the state’s doctors’ lobby, the Illinois Professionals Health Program has drawn criticism for the off-the-books nature of its work and its lack of accountability.
That it has expanded its reach to sex-offending health workers has heightened the controversy. Critics say such individuals don’t belong in a program shrouded in secrecy. Sexual misconduct demands disciplinary action, they say, not just treatment. And the public deserves to know who violators are.
Read more in the Chicago Tribune.