State Physician Health Programs: Where is the Science Behind Demanding Multi-Day Evaluations and Lengthy Treatment Stays?

I recently posted another slide presentation on QuantiaMD, this time about physician health programs entitled State Physician Health Programs:  What You Need to Know.  You can find it here.

In the comment section following my presentation, one respondents writes the following:  “I was, as far as I know, physician #1 in the State of Wisconsin physician health program, and later served on our county medical society PHP. Still later, after moving to the RI/MA area, I served on both of those states’ PHPs.  I am now retired and no longer actively involved with them.  I think Dr. Boyd fairly states the positives and negatives of these committees, but perhaps understates the issues related to both lack of a fair due process, as well as the tremendous conflicts of interest that result in virtually 100% of referrals being considered impaired or in need of “further diagnostic evaluation.”  As a physician who has worked in chemical dependency treatment for over 30 years, I do not need that level of time, effort or expense to do a totally satisfactory evaluation of my patients, both health professionals and others.  The drawn-out, very expensive and usually very 12-step driven treatment has no comparator in any evidence base.  We treated over 20 physicians at our community hospital program, with 18 of them highly successful, without the rigamarole of a 90+ day >$100.000 referral to Big Name Treatment Centers (our average cost, which included family involvement and either a 2 week Day Treatment Program or a 6 week Evening Treatment Program, followed by 1:1 counseling for at least 6 months, was about $10,000.  Unfortunately, our PHP has chosen to only use the very expensive programs for both diagnostic and treatment referral, and unsurprisingly they continue to believe every physician referral has a problem and are all in denial.  Many area, but many are not, and I do not find that these programs make the necessary efforts to contact collaterals and chase down the facts.”

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