Illinois is in the process of putting in to effect a law that will allow the public access to physician profiles. The Patients’ Right to Know Act was signed in to law about a week ago, by Ill. Governor Pat Quinn.

Information will contain any criminal involvement as well as medical malpractice suits, ultimately protecting the rights of Illinois residents and improving the quality of the state’s overall patient care.

Illinoisans who are in need of physician services can use the site to gain insight on the backgrounds of thousands of providers, as profiles of nearly 50,0000 licensed physicians will be accessible.

Brent Adams, secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, said, “Everyone is entitled to be able to provide informed consent to medical treatment, not just informed as to the procedure or medication, but informed as to who is recommending that course of treatment.”

Web profiles were first introduced about three years ago as part of a medical malpractice reform package, however, they were deemed unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court. As part of state oversight of physicians, lawmakers have continued pushing for profiles.

“Our supreme court ruled the caps on medical malpractice was unconstitutional, and there was a clause in there that said that if one part of the bill failed, the whole bill failed,” said Mary Flowers, state representative, “but the supreme court never once said that there was anything wrong with the portion of the bill that the patient should still have the right to know.”

The website is scheduled to be up, running, and ready for use in a couple of months, according to a news announcement from WBEZ, a Chicago-based radio station.