WAOW - Newsline 9, Wausau News, Weather, SportsMedical Examining Board discusses licensing and regulation

Medical Examining Board discusses licensing and regulation

Colby Robertson

MARSHFIELD (WAOW) -- When patient's file complaints with the state's medical examining board it can sometimes take up to three years to resolve.

That back-log is one of the topics state leaders talked about at a news conference in Marshfield.

Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing, Celia Jackson says, "Having cases that are pending three years and longer, just is a tremendous strain on everybody and information and evidence gets old and dated and so we need to find a way to be able to do that"

Their solution, to find more resources. Thanks to the 2009-2011 state budget, the board created eight new positions to help sift through complaints.

Gene Musser, M.D. Chairman of the Medical Examining Board says, "Physicians and others are allowed due process but it's important to do that in a quick matter so if the physician isn't competent we take them out of practice or if they physician requires re-education that we accomplish that quickly and these new positions will allow us to do that."

This same medical board recently dealt with the case of Marshfield doctor Kevin Lang who's accused of having sexual contact with sedated patients. Gene Musser, Chairman of the Medical Examining Board says these new additions wouldn't have made a difference in that specific case.. which he believes has moved forward quickly.

Dr. Musser says, "When our department received the complaint about him, which was recently, the board acted within a month of hearing about it to issue a complaint and in another month suspended his license."

As they look to the future, they hope the changes on licensing, re licensing and investigating complaints leads to stronger patient protection statewide. The Medical Examining Board will hear Doctor Lang's case next month in Madison. This is a typical disciplinary hearing. The issues at hand is whether or not there was a violation, the appropriate discipline and if there is discipline, what costs be imposed?

Online Reporter: Colby Robertson