Illinois Medical Record Report Card

Seems our Illinois Medical Licensure Board's website scored pretty poorly on Public Citizen's evaluation of data available online for "medical consumers:" scoring 44th of 65 state licensure web sites (some states have separate sites for osteopathic (DO) and medical (MD) doctors) and 38.8 of a possible 100 points.

The report covered eight categories in determining its grades: types of physician-identifying information, board disciplinary action information, disciplinary actions taken by hospitals, disciplinary actions taken by the federal government (Medicare, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Food and Drug Administration), malpractice information, criminal conviction information, Web Site search capabilities and other information. The survey found a wide range of Web site quality, with very few states providing disciplinary actions other than those taken by the boards themselves. Forty-four of the 65 boards provided none of this external information, thereby losing 40 points on their possible score of 100.

All states rankings can be found here.

But given the issues of privacy for physicians, I take issue why people need to know my birthdate (one of their fields needed to score perfectly). Doctors need to be aware the push to expose more of their private lives and personal information is real - and I have never consulted this database in referring a patient to a colleague.

-Wes