How do Physician Monitoring Programs Work?

[VentJockey]

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So, this post is purely based on my curiosity. I'm not in a physician monitoring program, nor do I have an interest in joining one.

About 6 months ago, I stumbled on some papers that weren't mean for me but wound up in my hands. It was a notification to some higher ups in my department that an attending at my program is in a monitoring program and had failed an etoh test at work, ie was intoxicated at work.

When I saw it, I assumed the attending would be toast and out of there. But no, this attending continues to work, and I find no evidence of censure or other adverse actions. What's up? I thought if you are in a monitoring program, and you screw up, they ruin your career for good. I thought that was basically why they are so good at keeping docs sober, because they ruin your life if you screw up.

Anyone can enlighten me on what they actually do? I'm just curious....

 

[NotAProgDirector]

It is very state dependent, and also depends on "how you got there". If you volunteer that you are impaired and ask for help, they are often much more willing to work with you rather than being "found out". The goal of most monitoring programs is to keep physicians practicing, not to fire them.

 

[Crayola227]

When you say fail, does that mean the result was not 0 but under the level of impairment? Or was it over the limit?

If he's in PHP they'll want 0 on any test I'm sure, but it's possible that if he ****ed that up but wasn't technically impaired, they might continue to let him work while continuing to work to get things under control. The reaction might not be to pull him from work, but monitor/test more frequently, more counseling, outpt rehab, etc etc

Just speculation. There's degrees to these things and not always like a 3 strikes rule or something like that.

 

[Crayola227]

I could say a lot more about PHPs but I's tired.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

They are really state/program specific. Each program would have a group of people making decisions, so there's not going to be uniformity from program to program. I would be surprised that someone in a monitoring program would test positive while at work and not have to go for a re-evaluation somewhere or a repeat treatment. But this person is being monitored, and you just need to trust the monitoring program -- they know more about what's going on than you.