Today was a big day. My PD pulled something left field. He got me back into work (starting next week) after pulling strings with members of Academic Affairs. The catch? You guessed it, sign up for FFDE. He hates it but tells me “look, you no longer will miss training, just play along. Also face it, you did drink and drive… we can get you to graduate on time, now that you are out of leave of absence”.
Before yall draw conclusions; yes this is sus and sounds like a trap. FFDE is really something they want leverage over me for and it makes it even more suspicious than ever before as if I will fall into a trap of negative assessments and ICD codes that can tear my license like tissue paper. But….
Yall dont know the context of how close the relationship is between PD and I going back as far as MS3 when he gave me a free interview and positive eval for other programs. He fished me out the match and was the one who gave me this livelihood in the first place. He will not squanch it. He protected me more than yall know and so please read this with the context that he truly is a father to me with Zero ulterior motive whatsoever other than “my program is short staffed as hell” and “we gotta get you to work”.
So I will do FFDE. My atty I ran it by because he called to tell me that i should file with my criminal atty a “factual innocence” motion so that the Arrest also is removed from record. He shook his head and told me “you’re giving them something to revoke your license for”. But he also said if I am truly adamant, then to set up a 2nd Psychiatric eval privately to counterbalance an FFDE, preferably by Addictionologist.
Antways, My PD also was prolly set up by PHP likely to make me do it too but he knows this is the way. It will suck and i will update. I understand my other options by
@Crayola227 that I can just face the board. The problem is I literally can get back to work and get paid right now. Until… of course my evaluation results say otherwise.
A little confused. Who is the attorney you ran the FFDE by? For ease of discussion, let's say the first attorney is your criminal attorney, and now you have a board attorney? At what point in this winding tale did he come on board? Was he the one advising you against the FFDE in the beginning or was that the criminal attorney? Can you give us a timeline of involvement of the board attorney, like where you were in all of this when he came on board, and his advice?
A few thoughts. I have zero doubts that your PD is in your corner, and of course anything you can do to make him happy and keep him in your corner is great.
But you do identify one issue, and I identify another. The two as I see it, his #1 concern is the short staffing. It has to be. The other, is that based on what you've said so far, my vibe is that the PD is not super familiar with this scenario and how a resident can dig out of it.
Also, the hospital and what meets their muster for employment is a SEPARATE thing from the board, believe it or not (beyond you just having a license to begin with) So from the beginning, it sounds like your PD just did what any PD was going to do as far as reporting. I'm surprised it was a referral to PHP without notifying the board as well. Your PD may not have given a damn about you being cleared by PHP and FFDE, but it sounds like it wasn't up to him (it actually isn't). So someone in HR or whoever above him said, no, actually they have to do x,y,z, and then we can have him back to work.
So that is one moving piece, the program and the hospital and what they need to employ you. Of course, the other requirement is having a license, but that's not up to them, they have zero to do with that decision beyond are they going to say nice things or not to the board.
Of course, if the FFDE and PHP ****s you, whether they clear you or not I'm guessing the board gets involved either way.
So the reality is that it doesn't sound like your PD knows enough about how all of this works and the law and the PHP and the board (if he did, he wouldn't be now coming down with a different word from someone above him what needs to be done).
He wants you back at work tomorrow, and the HR or whoever knows what it takes from their end (FFDE). They don't need the FFDE for facts or decision making obviously; they need it for legal risk management/CYA.
However, that doesn't mean that's what is best for keeping the board off your back.
Seriously, the board attorney is LITERALLY the only person in this entire sordid tale that can be expected to care about NOTHING else but keeping you out of hot water with the board, having a license, and if you can do it without the FFDE and PHP inpt that would be icing on the cake. And they are likely the only person who is apt to know what this is all means for the board. It might seem like a program has all the power, but they have zero power against the board where you are concerned.
I just worry the PD's advice is short sighted, it might get you to work tomorrow, but maybe the FFDE and PHP hangs you out to dry with the board and the hoops they want. Rereading, it sounds like that is what the board attorney fears.
In my experience, most board attorneys know very little about representing you to a residency program and how to manage that end of it. They tend to know more about other areas of physician employment. They know best about keeping a license with the board.
Also, the FFDE might also grease the wheels for termination etc especially if things go south with the PHP and board. This may not be your PD's goal, but it gets forgotten in these things despite the considerable power of a PD, it's more they have the ability to sink you at their level, tank you with anyone that talks to them, but not necessarily save you from higher powers. There are people above the PD and they care more about CYA than staffing even. They give zero ****s about you and the ones really deciding your fate you will never even talk to.
So your PD might be doing the best he can for you, but he has to follow the advice he's given. And everyone else involved could be blowing as much smoke up his ass as anyone is up yours. Also in these cases sometimes where the PD really does play the role of good cop, there can also be a bad cop in all this that won't hesitate to hang you out to dry. It could be an assistant PD, it could be a chair.
Maybe he has more insight or strings to pull than I know. All the more reason really for your attorney to talk to him. The general rule is don't sign any releases an attorney doesn't tell you to sign, unless it's a release for your attorney to talk to someone, those you should sign.
If he's really in your corner, than he should understand if the explanation is, "Well for HR/Academic Affairs they might be satisfied to bring him back on a FFDE, but if it goes south then he's given ammo he didn't have to with the board to pull his license, so the best way to salvage this guy and get him back to you free and clear is...."
Please, believe me. You can have one of the sweetest, kindest PDs in the world, and the dominoes to cut you and find your replacement could already be falling.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I have seen a resident fight the board with an attorney and psychiatrist/medical providers, and this can actually affect what the board decides is needed for follow up. Like in this case, say because it''s all dismissed, just based on, you had less than zero alcohol in your blood no legal trouble. If there aren't other red flags, the board could instead decide to have you do outpatient treatment while still practicing. Weekly drug tests, that kind of thing. This might be administered by the PHP, but it might be the board deciding what satisfies them.
It's possible the HR wants a FFDE, as aPD said that can look like different things. They can be done for different reasons, not all punitive. I don't even know that they are always something that involves a PHP or the board, they can be internal matters.
So the issue is, the hospital may want a FFDE, but does it have to be with the PHP? Yes, the PHP is then gonna report you to the board if you don't do theirs. I find it hard to believe in something like this it's possible for it to not end up in front of them at some point.
Anyway, how you move forward and to whom you give info, and whether or not you should do this, the board attorney's advice is probably best.
You can dance the tune of the hospital but don't be surprised if it isn’t sufficient.
Truthfully it is all hospital/program/state/board dependent.
Anyway, just my thoughts and things to consider. I hope it is as straightforward as doing the FFDE, getting cleared by the PHP, all while working towards graduation, and the board never gets involved or has any decisions to make regarding the PHP because the PHP rubberstamps you and the board rubberstamps that report. I question if you PD really knows the likelihood it plays out that neatly, that the hospital knows and is giving good advice, that the hospital isn't playing games (people forget there are often hospital legal risk management attorneys involved in all of this, and they DGAF and will play any game), that the PHP isn't playing games.
I doubt anyone knows better than an attorney experienced with the board.
The problem could be, what gets you out of hot water with the board per the board attorney (refuse FFDE) could as aPD says force the hand of your PD who might [not] be able to bring you on next year to graduate. But what's the point of the PHP and $50k 3 months inpt and all this if you can't graduate anyway? Coming through this with an intact license might be better.
Have you asked your board attorney if he has experience with how this works with residents? Perhaps the board is somewhat more lenient given the supervision.
Board certification is important, so important people forget that the license is tantamount and even without board cert, with a full unrestricted license you have a lot more well paying job prospects than if you have nothing but an MD.