Illinois § 2

§ 2.

Purpose; findings. (a) The purpose of this Act is to provide for the better protection of the public health through the development, establishment, and enforcement of standards (1) for the care of individuals in hospitals, (2) for the construction, maintenance, and operation of hospitals which, in light of advancing knowledge, will promote safe and adequate treatment of such individuals in hospital, and (3) that will have regard to the necessity of determining that a person establishing a hospital have the qualifications, background, character and financial resources to adequately provide a proper standard of hospital service for the community. (b) The Illinois General Assembly finds: (1) That the citizens of Illinois are not served by the inappropriate use of economic criteria in determining an individual's qualifications for initial or continuing medical staff membership or privileges. (2) That the inappropriate use of economic criteria in determining an individual's qualifications for initial or continuing medical staff membership or privileges may deprive the citizens of Illinois access to a choice of the health care providers. (3) That it is in the interest of the people of the State of Illinois to establish safeguards that (i) require hospitals and hospital based providers to explain to individual providers the reasons, including economic factors, for credentialing decisions, (ii) allow an opportunity for a fair hearing, and (iii) report economic credentialing to the Hospital Licensing Board for further study. As used in this Section and defined by the American Medical Association, "economic credentialing" means the use of economic criteria unrelated to quality of care or professional competency in determining an individual's qualifications for initial or continuing medical staff membership or privileges. (Source: P.A. 88-654, eff. 1-1-95.)