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MADISON, Wis. -- The state Medical Examining Board disciplined 11 doctors this week for giving out questionable sick notes to public workers at a 2011 rally to fight Gov. Scott Walker's limits on collective bargaining. The discipline was handed down Wednesday, eight months after 20 other doctors were punished for similar activity. In the latest round, six doctors were reprimanded and five residents were given administrative warnings, a lesser form of discipline. The six doctors who were disciplined were Susan Carson, Jennifer Edgoose, Laurel Mark, Dipesh Navsaria, Richard Schmelzer and Melissa Stiles. Carson is retired; the others are with the...

Madison - The state medical school disciplined 20 doctors and fined 11 of them up to $4,000 for handing out sick notes to demonstrators at last year's labor protests, newly released records show. The records, requested by the Journal Sentinel last year under the state's open records law, show for the first time the extent of the discipline given to those doctors by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. In several cases, doctors in more senior positions within the school also had to step away from those roles for a period of four months over one...

[Madison, Wisc...] A dozen doctors from Wisconsin and around the country contacted the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing to express their disappointment in the doctors accused of writing fake sick notes to protesters on February 18, 2011 at the Capitol, according to documents obtained by the MacIver News Service. Some of the doctors expressed concern, others outrage, and some even filed formal complaints against the sick note doctors. In general, the doctors felt the incident reflected poorly on the entire medical profession. “If the above is true, then it is unprofessional and unethical,” wrote Dr. Ronald Long. “Certainly it...

Madison - Seven doctors received a reprimand from a state board Wednesday for how they kept medical records after issuing controversial sick notes to demonstrators during the protests against Gov. Scott Walker's union bargaining law. "The board action today holds these physicians accountable for their very public actions," said a statement from Sujatha Kailas, a physician and chairman of the Medical Examining Boar Another two doctors received administrative warnings, a lesser form of discipline, according to the board. Twelve doctors faced scrutiny from the department about their activities at the Capitol, said John Murray, the No. 3 official at the...

At least 10 doctors not previously disciplined by the state signed sick notes for Madison School District employees that the district considered fraudulent, according to a State Journal analysis of the notes submitted amid Capitol protests earlier this year. The newspaper also found that about 570 district employees submitted sick notes for at least one of the four days in February when teacher absences forced a school shutdown. The number presents, for the first time, a clearer picture of how many Madison employees sought an excused absence. The documents - obtained by the newspaper Friday as part of a settlement...

Seven doctors who wrote sick notes for protesters at the state Capitol in February received reprimands Wednesday by the state Medical Examining Board. Two other doctors got administrative warnings, which aren't considered disciplinary action as the reprimands are. The medical board voted 6-3 to approve the reprimands for the six doctors from UW-Madison. The board voted 6-4 to reprimand the other doctor, from Dean Clinic. A board member from the university's doctor group abstained from the first vote. Two of the board members who voted no said they weren't allowed to talk publicly about why. The reprimands go on the...

Eighty-four school teachers in Madison turned in fraudulent sick notes from doctors who were handing them out at the State Capitol, but about half of them later rescinded their notes, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The Madison paper reported on its website that school officials with the Madison Metropolitan School District released information on the sick notes Friday. According to the district, 1,769 teachers out of 2,655 took unpaid time off during four of the most heated days of protests, according to the State Journal.

The University of Wisconsin has decided to act against doctors in their system that provided fraudulent medical excuses for demonstrators in Madison earlier this year. The medical school reviewed allegations against 22 of its faculty/staff and will remove them from “leadership positions” and dock their pay: UW Health doctors who wrote sick notes for protesters at the Capitol in February face penalties up to a loss of pay and leadership positions, the UW School of Medicine and Public Health said Tuesday. The medical school reviewed 22 UW Health doctors said to have been involved in writing medical excuses for protesters...

UW doctors face penalties for writing sick notes for protesters DAVID WAHLBERG | dwahlberg@madison.com | 608-252-6125 | Posted: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 3:30 am This photo, taken from a Youtube video from a Fox 11 (Green Bay) news report, shows a purported doctor telling a television station that he is offering sick notes to teachers who are at the Capitol protesting. UW Health doctors who wrote sick notes for protesters at the Capitol in February face penalties up to a loss of pay and leadership positions, the UW School of Medicine and Public Health said Tuesday. The medical school reviewed...

Madison - The state Department of Regulation and Licensing and the Medical Examining Board said Wednesday that they had opened investigations into eight individuals who allegedly wrote doctor excuse notes for protesters at the state Capitol during rallies in February. Last month, the Department of Regulation and Licensing said it had identified 11 people who may have provided the medical excuses, and it asked them to submit information about their activities at the Capitol. Three members of the Medical Examining Board reviewed the information and decided to open investigations on eight of the 11, according to a department news release....

I don't think anyone really considered the actions of the Wisconsin Teachers Union and their members in last months protest of the Wisconsin budget battle as anything other than a sick out. The only thing lacking was proof, but in an odd quirk of fate that is exactly what fell into the lap or voicemail of concerned citizen. Blaska's Blogs has the sordid details including an audio recording of a pre-meditated, union authorized job action consisting of a phone tree with teachers calling other teachers for the express purpose of closing down schools. This type of action is prohibited by...

Anyone know if William Windels was one of the medical people handing out fake doctor notes at the union thugfest in Madison? Turns out the woman who wrote the threats via email to the senators in WI, Katherine Windels, is the adopted daughter of one William A Windels, LPN, who works in Madison and is a graduate of UW-Madison, the same school that sent the docs into the protest. http://registry.adoption.com/records/554354.htmlhttp://wi-madison.doctors.at/dr/william-windels-williamandrewwindelsapnphttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/william-windels/27/398/357Anyone have a list of the docs who were there to compare?

WKOW reported yesterday that an investigation is ongoing to determine the veracity of more than 1000 doctor excuses that have been handed in by Madison teachers in an attempt to justify their absence from teaching duties that ultimately resulted in the closing of school for four consecutive days. The results of this inquiry will result in teacher suspension. "A new contract with Madison teachers says fraudulent excuses will result in a letter of suspension but won't require suspended teachers to be off from work." How is that for punishment! I mean really, if this is the ultimate result of any...

“Primum nil nocere.” First, do no harm. This bedrock principle in medicine is a foreign language to most politicians and, sadly, to some Wisconsin doctors, who have violated their oath and the public trust as they have defrauded Wisconsin taxpayers. Several University of Wisconsin family physicians donned their sacred white coats and were caught distributing fraudulent “sick notes” free for the asking quite literally by the boxful - I wonder who paid for that printing - to teachers and others who skipped work to engage in political protest at the state Capitol in Madison. Whatever the merits of the teachers’...

Doctors in Wisconsin engaging in deceptionUpdated: February 24, 2011, 6:43 AM Protesters in Wisconsin have apparently developed quite a bit of stress due to their recent protesting against the governor’s proposed legislation against collective bargaining. Many of these union workers, teachers as well as other nongovernmental employees, have seemingly also taken time off from work to engage in the protesting. And now, doctors have rallied to the cause. Doctors from several area hospitals have manned a booth with the explicit intent to provide a physician’s excuse that explains the employee’s work absence. A physician from the University of Wisconsin School...

Link only - Wisc. Teachers Who Protested In Madison Docked Pay, Disciplined

Video at the linkie.

Call it karma, just desserts, or schadenfreude. The cost to taxpayers of doctors’ notes excusing Wisconsin teachers from work so that they don’t get fired for illegally walking out on classes has been estimated at $6 million. Watching Big Government crack down on Big Labor? Priceless: Staff at the state Department of Regulation and Licensing have begun to review roughly 300 e-mail complaints about doctors issuing excuse notes for protesters at the state Capitol over the weekend, officials said Tuesday.Complaints that name a specific doctor and the alleged violations of rules covered by their licenses will be forwarded to the...

Today the state of Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing, announced that it would begin "looking into accusations that a number of local doctors provided the notes for protesters who missed work during the week...the department will review complaints with the independent Medical Examining Board as soon as possible." This of course comes one day after a spokesman for University of Wisconsin Health said that it too was looking into the matter. While this peddles slowly along, some of profiles are being scrubbed clean. The profiles of Hannah Keevil and Valerie Gilchrist remain, while Kathy Oriel, James Shropshire, Lou Sannon,...

Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said Wednesday that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is acting like a “dictator.” Ellison said that Walker, a Republican, should negotiate with union workers, who have agreed to pay more for health benefits as long as they can keep collective bargaining rights. Walker is “basically taking on the position of a dictator,” he told reporters. “Because he says he won’t negotiate. That is something that is not in the spirit of a public servant, who just won’t even talk. He is putting himself in a position of being extreme, radical and reckless. And he’s...