Posted on 02/19/2011 12:20:24 PM PST by rhema
[Madison, WI] As tens of thousands of public employees skipped work this week to attend protest rallies outside the Wisconsin State Capitol, many wondered if they would face any disciplinary action for unexcused absences.
On Saturday, a group of men and women in lab coats purporting to be doctors were handing out medical excuse notes, without examining the patients.
I asked this doctor what he was doing and he told me they were handing out excuses to people who were feeling sick due to emotional, mental or financial distress, said Christian Hartsock. They never performed an examhe asked me how I was feeling today and I said Im from California and Im not used to the cold, so he handed me a note.
Another woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were handing out excuses like they were leaflets.
I asked if they were handing out doctors excuses and a guy said yes and asked me if I needed one, she said. When I told them I needed one for February 16 and 17th, he wondered if I wanted to come back here for the protests next week.
What happened next?
I said, sure, and I received a doctors note for the 16th through the 25th of February, without a medical exam.
The notes read
Feb 19, 2011
Patients name______
Date of birth ____/_____/_____
To Whom it May Concern:
This is confirm I have seen and evaluated the above named patient.
Please excuse from work/school due to a medical condition from
____/____/____ through
Please contact me at badgerdoctors@gmail.com if additional information is needed. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Physician Signature:
Physician Name
WI license number
Based on an examination of the signature and medical license number provided, one of the men handing out these notes was purporting to be James H Shropshire MD, a Clinical Associate Professor at the University Wisconsin Madison.
At this time, MacIver News Service is attempting to contact Dr. Shropshire to see if indeed he was the one handing out the notes on the Capitol Square.
Glad I could help :-)
Very interesting observations. I’ll keep my eyes open for more info. I wonder what some of the attorneys (Mark Levin, Prof.s Jacobson & Althouse, etc.) might come up with from the legal side.
Medicolegally, passing out sick notes to anyone (much less strikers walking by) implies the creation of a physician-patient relationship. This means, for example, that it could be construed that you are legally responsible for any medical issues related to said relationship. In Florida, and presumably in WI, you must have an official medical record for all patients that you evaluate and care for. Technically, my writing an antibiotic prescription for my childs ear infection is forbidden if I dont have a record kept on file documenting an examination and treatment plan.
There is no doubt that ethically, and presumably legally, the MDs in Madison are committing multiple violations of their regulations in order to further a political goal...
The obvious answer is to have someone go get one of those notes, then "get really sick" and sue the doctor for malpractice. If they claim to have treated them but don't have any records....WOW
Know anyone with a chronic illness near Madison?
Very creative thinking. I wish someone WOULD go for it. Those liberal lefties need to have the doctor be worth something, though.
Haven't you heard ?
Personal Health issues now affect interstate commerce....BarryO Said so!
I see plenty of them on TV.
All infected with Liberalism.
“The obvious answer is to have someone go get one of those notes, then “get really sick” and sue the doctor for malpractice. If they claim to have treated them but don’t have any records....WOW
Know anyone with a chronic illness near Madison?”
—I like it.
Somebody pointed out that Dr. Lou Sanner, one of the doctors handing out the notes had claimed that the people receiving the notes were “suffering from stress”, but, “In the few seconds this doctor spends with his newly found patients, he cant possibly pretend to know if they are suffering from any kind of stress! Dr. Sanner is not a psychologist or psychiatrist. He is a family practitioner in Madison.”
Adding that point to your point about chronic illnesses, you could make the argument that stress that is serious enough to warrant individuals to stay home from work- which may be for weeks or months (if the Dems don’t come back)- should require a thorough examination.
Stress can lead to all kinds of serious problems like heart disease, stroke, etc., and the doctors should have been educating the public about that. It’s not some kind of laughing matter, really- and any reputable doctor should know that- you don’t simply hand somebody a “sick note” after speaking to them for a few seconds and send them home...
heres another doctor caught on tape:
http://www.fox6now.com/news/politics/witi-20110220-doctors-excuse,0,3203435.story
The Wisconsin license number on the document handed out to Kileys friend is WI 42347. According to the Department of Regulation and Licensing in Wisconsin, that number correlates with a physician identified as Mark Beamsley, MD. Hes faculty at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. According to the UW Health website, Dr. Beamsleys special interests include obstetrics and cardiac stress testing. A photo on the site appears to match the photo taken on Saturday.
http://findadoctor.uwhealth.org/findadoctor/Provider.action?_sourcePage=%2Fresults.jsp&id=5482
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