March 7, 2011 - 2:06 pm
There was some concern that the doctors who were seen handing out fake medical excuses in Madison had escaped punishment because their names, briefly scrubbed from the Univeristy of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine website had reappeared on it . I wrote to find out their status and was informed that they are still under investigation:
Dear Attorney Feldman
My assistant referred your email to me. Thank you for your communication and concern. There is an ongoing investigation through the Deans[sic] office at the SMPH. The investigating committee will give their recommendation to the Dean. We will take our direction from the Dean.
Valerie Gilchrist MD
Chair Department of Family Medicine, SMPH
For just a moment, I wondered why they were picking on Doctor Who.
Thanks for keeping us informed on this Attorney Feldman.
This “Investigation” will last until all the publicity goes away, because as long as they are being “investigated”, they have an excuse not to talk about. Then they will be given the lightest of taps on the wrist, and told “Never get caught again”.
The University physicians who wrote fake illness notes, were essentialy committing fraud. It should be a matter for whatever Board Of Medicine, regulates physicians practices and behavior in the state.I aslo don’t see why it isn’t criminal behavior.
As a family physician in Florida, I am asked often, to supply an off work exscuse, for a patient, that is fraudulent. My response has always been, ” Do you want me to lie, and lose my license?”.
In most states it is illegal to write an excuse for someone the doctor has not examined. It is also usually a crime not to investigate such actions when they have been reported. Interested parties need to follow up on these cases and keep up the pressure.
The med student/doctors to be, need to be sent to ethic 501 and spend time with a real FP in TEXAS to learn the ropes. All this at the doctor to be’s expense, licensesure contingent on a passing grad.
A provisional license for 5 years might be a good idea with a volunteer conservative practicing physician as a mentor.
Weren’t these doctors caught on tape? How long exactly does it take to investigate that sort of thing?
That’s an interesting question. I do suppose though that the doctors have a right to some sort of hearing where they can contest the evidence and argue about what the appropriate response should be under their employment agreements.
Prediction: The doctors will get a slap on the wrist. A verbal reprimand, maybe a few days off without pay, but that’s all.
It will all be swept under the rug by their friends at the University.
Always good to hear from a chair; investigate is what they do. Example: major Nidal Hasan. Killed thirteen while shooting up a room full of people in front of a hundred or so witnesses – still being investigated. Admitedly phoney notes from individuals who gave their names ON VIDEO while writing them? Could take years.
I’m sure the school knows they’re guilty: what they’re investigating is if they’re guilty guilty.
The only way that these doctors will ever be held accountable is if the investigation is taken out of the hands of the university. The university is being ask to investigate itself and ask to possible produce results that will severely negatively impact the reputation of the university. It is a clear conflict of interest.
11. Shannon Love
Not only a conflict of interest, a conflict of politics/theology [coercive collectivism being as much a religion as Islam, and with many shared attributes].
The balancing act is NOT one where the variables are “maintaining ethics, legal conduct, and the reputation of the school/profession” -v- “acts that destroy ethics, legal conduct, and the reputation”.
The actual decision branch that they are using is along the lines of:
“we can do the technically legal thing” -v- “the possibility that if we actually do punish them, in the future other doctors/students may NOT take extraordinary and technically illegal steps to support our political belief system against the barbarians” [which refusal would be the most undesirable outcome].
What they are solely considering is how they can protect themselves from any liability for the illegal and unethical acts that they approve of, and at the same time how to tacitly encourage other doctors to act illegally in support of their politics in the future. The word “Ethics” to a Democrat or other Leftist either has null semantic content, or is to only be interpreted in the Dialectic sense.
Their conduct in the fields of law, politics, economics, and commercial business over the last couple of decades has already made me make a first order assumption that no one in their right mind should want to hire or deal with anybody with an Ivy League education. Their contact with reality is too filtered by both years of PC indoctrination and an overweening sense of personal entitlement to make them not worth the trouble they cause.
If the University of Wisconsin School of Family Medicine and/or their Medical licensing board does not end up expelling people from their academic program and putting some real hurt on the already licensed MD’s [and thus their malpractice insurance rates]; it becomes a rational conclusion that the University and the Licensing Board give a higher priority to supporting their favored political agenda over not violating criminal law, “Medical Ethics”, and the safety of patients. Would you want someone so educated to either work for you or to be responsible for the life of yourself or your family?
Subotai Bahadur
If memory serves correctly….Ann Althouse has video of Gilchrist writing phoney excuses at the rallies. I could be wrong, but I do remember alot of discussion on Althouse’s blog about a dean at the med school writing excuses. If so, I would not be so sure there is actually any investigation going on.
Althouse’s husband, Meade, has been at the protests with a video cam since day one. Lots of good footage.
So, what was finally done to these fraudulent doctors?