Suspected Drug Abuse in Physician Colleague : What to Do ?

A common question doing the rounds these days on the residency interview circuit is how would you deal with the situation if you found out or suspected that your physician colleague / friend working with you is consuming alcohol / drugs that are affecting his duties ?

For answering this, let us cite an article by Dr. Stephen Ross posted on American Medical Association, which says:

"If a colleague is concerned that a physician has an SUD that is impairing his or her functioning, it is that colleague’s ethical duty to act immediately to intervene. The best approach is usually to contact a Physicians Health Program (PHP), rather than the state medical board, and to report the suspected addicted physician."
So How about first Confronting and confirming from the Physician himself before taking it to the authorities ?

"Contacting a PHP can be done anonymously and is usually better than trying to confront the individual directly since most addicted physicians have high levels of denial and are usually not receptive to interventions from colleagues."
Hmmm..

Note that PHP does not punish the physician, rather works with the physician to resolve the issue while allowing the physician to keep practice license. Punitive actions, license revoking, etc. after reporting the physician to the State Medical Board were the old days, the new ideology is to treat the physician for his ailment rather than punish him/her for it. Why not ? When addicted, the person is unable to control him/herself to abstain from it ..and that exactly is the ailment - and punish for a disease ?

Interestingly, the highest incidences of Substance abuse amongst physicians are seen amongst the Anesthesiologists and Emergency Medicine


Read the Source article here : "Identifying an Impaired Physician": - by Stephen Ross