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Risks of anesthesiology: Addiction and job loss — or recovery
Author(s) -
Knopf Alison
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
alcoholism and drug abuse weekly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7591
pISSN - 1042-1394
DOI - 10.1002/adaw.32201
Subject(s) - addiction , leverage (statistics) , livelihood , medicine , business , psychology , psychiatry , computer science , history , archaeology , machine learning , agriculture
This is a true story: An anesthesiologist in Illinois developed an addiction, stole drugs from the hospital, entered a physician health plan (PHP), relapsed, tried to hide it (asked his staff to give him their urine to substitute for his own) and the story got into the press. We're not naming names. But the key issue is universal among physicians and others with high‐powered jobs and access to addictive drugs: How can the system be set up to help them so they can keep their livelihood, leverage their job toward recovery and not be inclined to hide their addiction and thus endanger patients?