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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Public must be informed of doctor discipline

   The Iowa Legislature’s to-do list should be a little longer after last week.
And people need to contact their senators and representatives in the Legislature to make sure they understand their duty is to protect the health and safety of Iowans.
The reason? The Iowa Supreme Court handed down a decision Friday that will pretty much keep the public in the dark when a physician is charged by state regulators with professional misconduct.
For decades, the Iowa Board of Medicine released the facts and legal basis for disciplinary charges the board filed against doctors. That basis might include a physician being impaired by alcohol or other drugs. The doctor may be accused of sexually molesting a patient in the exam room. Maybe the physician is accused of using improper, unnecessary or unskilled treatments.
 
Read the full opinion column in the Oct. 28 Advance. 

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