ISMS Bylaws
CHAPTER XI. ETHICAL RELATIONS
Part 1. Component Medical Society. Each component society may have, either by appointment or election, an Ethical Relations Committee whose duty it shall be to conduct disciplinary hearings under this chapter. Although the component society may develop its own procedures for conducting such hearings, each society will, to the extent possible, comply with the general guidelines set forth by the Judicial Panel, which panel is created under this chapter; such guidelines referred to as the “Handbook for the Conduct of Disciplinary Proceedings.”
Part 2. District Ethical Relations Committee. The delegates in each multi-county Illinois State Medical Society district, and in a single county district the component society, shall establish a District Ethical Relations Committee. The component society may elect to request that the District Ethical Relations Committee serving its area function in its behalf and shall conduct such disciplinary proceedings as are required. In the event that a component society's Ethical Relations Committee does not make a reasonable effort to hold a hearing on a properly filed complaint, within a reasonable time period, or has a conflict of interest, either the complaining party or the physician against whom formal written charges have been brought, may petition the Illinois State Medical Society Judicial Panel to request the District Ethical Relations Committee to intervene and take jurisdiction of the matter. In the event of a dispute resulting from such actions, the Judicial Panel shall determine, as provided in Part 7 of this chapter, the appropriate forum for the hearing.
Part 3. Offenses.
Disciplinary action may be taken against any member of a component society when:
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The physician has been convicted, adjudged or otherwise recorded as guilty by any court of competent jurisdiction of a felony or a crime involving moral turpitude; or
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He has been adjudged or otherwise recorded as guilty by his component society of: (a) acts of serious misconduct as a physician; or (b) a violation of the Constitution or Bylaws of his component society, or of the code of Medical Ethics promulgated by the Illinois State Medical Society; or
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He has been judged guilty of a violation of a law or regulation by an administrative agency of government resulting in the termination of his privileges, license, or other rights held by the physician; or
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The physician has brought litigation either in court or before an administrative agency against ISMS, any of its officers, or its indemnified agents during the discharging of their duties without first having utilized all existing officially delineated and published internal mechanisms for the resolution of disputes, and conflicts.
Part 4. Standards and Procedures.
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The committee, in its deliberations, shall evaluate acts by the standards established in the Constitution and Bylaws of the Illinois State Medical Society and/or the component medical society of which the accused is a member.
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Disciplinary action may be initiated by the component society or the ISMS upon receipt of formal written charges filed by any person, alleging violations of any of the offenses enumerated in Part 3 of this chapter. The person filing the complaint may submit it to either the county where the accused physician holds membership or the county where the alleged incident occurred.
Written charges received by the Illinois State Medical Society shall be referred to the secretary of the component society in which the accused physician maintains membership or practices medicine. The component society may then exercise the choice of proceeding through its own Ethical Relations Committee or referring the complaint to the District Ethical Relations Committee. Disciplinary action may also be initiated upon the filing of a complaint of an alleged violation of any of the listed offenses by a component medical society against a physician, such complaint having been filed by the secretary of the component society, on its behalf.
Part 5. Penalties. The component society’s or district’s Ethical Relations Committee shall submit its recommendations for disciplinary action in writing to the component society. The recommendation shall be to: (a) acquit; (b) censure; (c) suspend; or (d) expel from membership.
The recommendation to censure shall mean an entry will be made in the accused physician's membership file to the effect that the physician has been found guilty of the act complained of and that he has been properly advised of the finding. No deprivation of membership privileges will be imposed.
The recommendation to suspend shall mean that for a fixed period of time, to be determined by the component society, the accused physician shall forfeit his rights to vote and otherwise to participate in the affairs of the local, state and national societies. In all other respects, his membership shall remain intact.
The recommendation to expel shall mean that the membership status and privileges and rights attendant thereto of the accused physician shall be terminated for a period of one year. At the conclusion of the twelve (12) month period, the physician may re-apply for membership in the society; however, he shall then have the burden of demonstrating that the conditions and factors which contributed to this expulsion have since been removed and need not be considered in the process of reviewing his application for renewed membership.
Part 6. Decision by Component Medical Society.
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The recommendations of the Ethical Relations Committee must be presented to the component society for approval, rejection, modification or reconsideration. The complainant and accused shall be given reasonable advance notice of the date set for the meeting when the committee's recommendations will be considered. The complainant and the accused each may submit a written statement of their respective positions to the component society. If either the complainant or the accused feels that errors were made during the proceeding before the Ethical Relations Committee or that new and additional relevant information has become available since the committee conducted its hearing, said party shall submit a description of these errors or new evidence to the component society prior to the component society's review. At the discretion of the component society, the complainant, the accused, and their legal counsel may appear before the society to testify.
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If the component society believes that the new evidence not previously disclosed to the committee is relevant and material or that procedural error was committed, that component society may refer the matter back to the Ethical Relations Committee for reconsideration. The notice shall state the reasons for the referral and shall set a time limit within which a subsequent hearing must be conducted and recommendations must be presented to the component society.
Part 7. Judicial Panel. A Judicial Panel shall be created and empowered to conduct all appellate hearings arising out of Chapter XI of these bylaws and such other appellate proceedings as may derive from disputes or grievances among physicians practicing or residing in the State of Illinois. The panel shall render its decisions based on these hearings and related deliberations. The panel may, on request, adjudicate disputes among individual physicians or physician groups, between component medical societies and district Ethical Relations Committees, and between local medical societies and the Illinois State Medical Society when such disputes involve or impact the individual rights of physicians practicing or residing in this state; except that the Judicial Panel shall have the power on its own initiative to intervene when an Ethical Relations Committee of a component medical society fails to act in a timely manner, as provided in Part 2 of this chapter. The component medical societies and District Ethical Relations Committees shall cooperate with the Judicial Panel in the collection of statistical information for the purpose of identifying the manner in which due process of law is guaranteed to physicians accused of violations of provisions of these bylaws.
A notice of appeal shall be filed with the ISMS Judicial Panel by one of the parties within 30 days after receiving notice of a decision from the component society. Within 15 days after the required filing date for appeal, the party requesting the appeal shall file a written statement with the Judicial Panel, which shall include a description of the errors believed to have occurred during the prior proceedings or assertions of the substantive grounds for requesting the Appellate Hearing.
A party may be granted an appeal hearing if: 1) There is reason to believe that procedural error(s) occurred which significantly affected the outcome of the case; 2) There is a showing that those who conducted the initial hearing acted with bias; 3) The evidence upon which the decision was based was not sufficient to support the decision; 4) The evidence was not properly received or considered; or 5) In the sole discretion of the Judicial Panel, there were other reasons which adversely governed the proceedings and denied due process rights to the party requesting the appeal.
The decisions of the Judicial Panel shall be final, except that an appeal may be requested by the accused member under the Constitution and Bylaws of the American Medical Association. The Judicial Panel of the Society shall confine all decisions to its proper appellate function, which is to sustain, remand, or overturn a decision rendered, or reduce a penalty imposed by a county society or district ethical relations committee.
Members of the Judicial Panel shall be elected by a majority of the members of the House of Delegates upon nomination by the president of the Illinois State Medical Society. The panel shall consist of five (5) members of the Illinois State Medical Society, elected for five-year terms on a staggered basis. Members of the panel may serve only one elected five-year term.
In the event a vacancy on the Judicial Panel occurs, the president of the Illinois State Medical Society shall nominate a successor who shall serve, if approved by the Board of Trustees, until the next meeting of the House of Delegates. At its meeting following such interim appointment, the House of Delegates shall elect a member of ISMS to fill the unexpired term on the Judicial Panel by the procedure described in these bylaws. In the event members of the Judicial Panel are unable to participate in an Appellate hearing for any reason, including the perception of conflict of interest, resulting in fewer than three members of the Panel ready and able to participate in a given appeal, the president shall recommend to the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and that committee shall appoint additional interim members to fill out the five-member Panel. These interim members shall serve only for the purpose of conducting and participating in the pending Appeal and their term as members of the Panel shall begin and end with the conduct of the Hearing assigned to them by the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees. The members of any panel shall elect from among themselves a chairman.
The Judicial Panel is authorized and directed to make any report required by state or federal law with respect to actions it takes and to do so by transmittal to the appropriate officer of the Society as determined from time to time by the Board of Trustees.
The panel shall meet as often as necessary in order to assure a reasonably prompt disposition of matters properly placed before it and shall convene on the call of the chairman. Three members of the panel shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of its business.
The panel shall adopt such rules as it deems appropriate for the orderly conduct of its duties. A written copy of such rules shall be made available to each component society and to the chairman of the Board of Trustees. The panel shall publish a “Handbook for the Conduct of Disciplinary Proceedings,” to be approved by the House of Delegates and which shall serve as a general guideline to all component medical societies in the conduct of hearings.
The chairman of the panel shall report to the House of Delegates at each of its annual meetings, thereby informing the members of the House of Delegates of the proceedings and deliberations of the panel during the preceding twelve months.
Part 8. Due Process Safeguards. In all proceedings conducted in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, the accused physician’s rights to due process of law shall be honored and observed. The “Handbook for the Conduct of Disciplinary Proceedings” will set forth general guidelines for affording such due process protections.
The Ethical Relations Committee is authorized and directed to make any report required by state or federal law with respect to actions it takes and to do so by transmittal to the appropriate officer of the Society as determined from time to time by the Board of Trustees.
