The objective of this study was to document current risk factors associated with physicians' suicide ideation among a group of doctors enrolled in a Physician Health Program. A retrospective cohort study was drawn from administrative data. The study compared intake information between doctors who reported recent thoughts of suicide (n = 70) and those who did not (n = 1,572) using adjusted regression analysis. Current stressors included personal, financial, health, and occupational problems; ideation was more likely with multiple stressors. Physicians endorsing suicidal ideation lacked personal supports and scored differently on Short Form-36 measures. Evaluators treating physicians should assess enduring risks and current stressors, particularly multiple stressors, to help detect suicidal patients. Current stressors should not be viewed as transitory and it is critical to bring in collateral information.

The frequency and variety of informal care reported in this study strongly argues for profession-wide discussion about ethical and guideline considerations for such behaviour. These areas are discussed in the paper.

Background Physician health programmes (PHPs) are peer-assistance organizations that provide support to physicians struggling with addiction or with physical or mental health challenges. While the services they offer are setting new standards for recovery and care, they are not immune to public debate and criticism since some have concerns about those who are enrolled in, or have completed, such programmes and their subsequent ability to practice medicine safely. AimsTo examine whether medical malpractice claims were associated with monitoring by a PHP using a retrospective examination of administrative data. MethodsData on PHP clients who were insured by the largest malpractice carrier in the state were examined. First, a business-model analysis of malpractice risk examined relative risk ratings between programme clients and a matched physician cohort. Second, Wilcoxon analysis examined differences in annual rates of pre-and post-monitoring claims for PHP clients only. ResultsData on 818 clients was available for analysis. After monitoring, those enrolled in the programme showed a 20% lower malpractice risk than the matched cohort. Furthermore physicians' annual rate of claims were significantly lower after programme monitoring among PHP clients (P < 0.01).Conclusions This is the only study examining this issue to date. While there are a variety of reasons why physicians present to PHPs, this study demonstrates that treatment and monitoring is associated with a lowered risk of malpractice claims and suggests that patient care may be improved by PHP monitoring.

There is growing evidence that physician health programs (PHPs) are an important component in physicians' recovery from substance disorders, although we do not know how variations in treatment and monitoring affect physician recovery. This study was designed to understand how programmatic differences impact clients' overall program completion. This study was part of a larger investigation, the Blueprint Project, which evaluated outcomes for clients enrolled in PHPs nationally. Here we compared physicians presenting to a Colorado-based PHP for substance use to a nationally based referent, contrasting treatment, monitoring, and outcomes (Colorado n = 72, National n = 730). The samples were similar demographically although more Colorado physicians were polysubstance users. We found variations in treatment and monitoring patterns with Colorado physicians participating in more types of primary treatment and monitoring services and were allowed to work more at some point during monitoring. There was greater relapse among Colorado physicians, but these differences disappeared when we controlled for prior treatment. The great majority of clients in both samples showed successful recovery. This data provides a foundation on which to understand population characteristics, contractual differences, and outcome variations among PHPs and serves to inform internal PHP programmatic structures and regulatory agencies.

Physician cognitive evaluations should consider a variety of secondary sources of information, particularly vocational performance reports. It may take time before cognitive impairment can be diagnosed or ruled-out in this population. Prior assumptions, especially for non-cognitive referrals, can lead to inaccurate diagnosis and referrals. PHPs must manage cognitive cases carefully, not only in their clinical complexity but also in their psychosocial aspects.