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 The health and well-being of our practitioners
is important to Texas Children’s
By Danny H. Danziger, M.D.
I serve as chair of the recently established Practitioner Health
& Wellbeing Committee. The intent of the committee is to educate
the medical staff about physician health issues, and to identify
and manage matters of physician health separate from the peer
review and disciplinary processes. While the Practitioner Health
& Wellbeing Committee Policy can easily be accessed via the
Texas Children’s Hospital Intranet page, I thought it would be
helpful to medical staff members for me to use this space to
briefly describe the manner in which the committee can assist in
matters involving physician health.
One of the committee’s primary goals is to educate the medical
staff about physician health issues. Every physician on the
medical staff will receive a copy of the Practitioner Health &
Wellbeing Committee Policy at the time of initial credentialing
and at each subsequent recredentialing. The committee also plans
to offer educational sessions or materials dealing with
physician health issues on a periodic basis, and will conduct
activities meant to encourage a healthy work environment and
wellness among medical staff members.
Another goal is to facilitate the assessment of suspected
impaired physicians and refer them, if necessary, to appropriate
treatment programs for assistance and rehabilitation. We have
defined an impaired physician to be “one who is unable to
practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety to patients
because of a physical, psychiatric or emotional illness,
including deterioration through the aging process, loss of motor
skill or excessive use or abuse of drugs, including alcohol.”
Helping an impaired colleague
If you suspect a colleague is dealing with impairment, feel free
to contact me or any other member of the committee directly, or
submit a written referral (signed or anonymous) to the Medical
Staff Services & Education Office addressed to me. All such
reports will be treated in a strictly confidential manner. For
confidentiality purposes, each member of the committee signs a
confidentiality statement upon becoming a member of the
committee, and all documents, proceedings and records of the
committee are confidential and privileged under Texas law.
The committee is available to assist physicians who are dealing
with any kind of impairment that affects their ability to
function in a competent, safe manner. Upon receiving a report
that one of our physicians may be impaired, my first step is to
make an initial assessment of available information to determine
if further review is warranted. If there is sufficient
information, I’ll convene the committee to look into the matter.
The committee has wide discretion in how it conducts its review,
but will always interview the person who made the report (unless
submitted anonymously) and the physician who is suspected of
being impaired. Based upon the information gathered by the
committee, it will deem the report to be (1) without merit, (2)
unable to be confirmed, or (3) confirmed.
If the report is found to be “without merit,” the committee will
consider the matter to be closed and inform the physician of its
decision.
If the committee determines the report is “unable to be
confirmed,” this means the committee was unable to positively
confirm that the physician has an impairment, but does not mean
the committee will automatically close the matter with no
action. The committee may share any of its concerns with the
physician in a formal counseling session, establish a monitoring
program for the physician and/or recommend a rehabilitation
program to the physician.
Options for aiding physicians
Lastly, if the committee deems the report “confirmed,” the
committee has a wide array of options, including recommending a
rehabilitation program. The committee also may recommend the
physician take a leave of absence and/or voluntarily limit or
relinquish his or her privileges for a period of time. If the
physician agrees with the committee’s recommendations, the
committee will oversee the physician’s progress and support the
physician’s reinstatement to the medical staff when it is
provided the appropriate evidence of the physician’s
rehabilitation. If, on the other hand, the physician refuses to
follow the recommendations of the committee, we will refer the
physician to Dr. Ralph Feigin and Mark Wallace for further
action.
Ultimately, the committee’s objective is to get impaired
physicians the help they need to return to safe clinical
practice. Therefore, when a physician successfully completes
rehabilitation and follows the committee’s recommendations
regarding his or her return to practice, the committee will
support the physician’s active participation on the medical
staff.
If you have any questions about the committee’s processes, you
can access the Practitioner Health & Wellbeing Committee Policy
via the intranet or request a copy from the Medical Staff
Services and Education Office. Please feel free to contact me
directly about the committee’s role and responsibilities.
Danny H. Danziger, M.D., chairs Texas Children’s Hospital’s
Practitioner Health & Wellbeing Committee. He is a Texas
Children’s Pediatric Associates pediatrician.
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