I’ve been reporting on the Statehouse for over 16 years, and I can’t recall such a long string of negative audits as we’ve seen in the past three years. I really don’t enjoy writing all these stories about the governor. I have a lot of friends who work for him and/or support him and, personally, I like the guy. I truly wish he’d get his act together and focus more on clean and effective governance than generating an endless stream of PR pops.
A new audit has found serious problems in the way Illinois handles doctors accused of possible misconduct, from investigations being closed improperly to sloppy paperwork to a lack of public information.
Auditor General William Holland reported Tuesday the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation is supposed to investigate accusations of misconduct. But some accusations were shelved by the staff who took the complaints, while others were sent to investigators but were closed without approval from the department’s disciplinary board.
Auditors say 15 percent of cases were closed without evidence the disciplinary board had signed off.
Investigators did not always have access to past reports on accusations against doctors when looking into new allegations, auditors found, and half of investigations lasted longer than the five-month goal the department has set.
The full audit can be found here. The AP has a summary here.