New protections on the way for patients against sexual abuse, misconduct by healthcare workers

State oversight failures exposed in a Tribune investigation drove a package of major changes to state law aimed at better protecting patients from sexual abuse or other inappropriate conduct by doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers.

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, who first proposed the legislation more than a year ago, called the final version of the bill, which the legislature approved late last session, “frankly revolutionary.”

The bill creates an obligation for healthcare businesses and individual healthcare workers to promptly report to the state if they witness or hear about allegations of sexual or intimate conduct involving healthcare professionals and patients. The state would be able to discipline licensed workers ranging from doctors and nurses to dentists and massage therapists for failing to report such incidents.

Learn more about the legislative protections created by this bill from Emily Hoerner and Lisa Schencker in the Chicago Tribune.