Eeee Gads! Most on that list appear to be male! I sense that part of the problem is that Governments try to, and generally succeed at telling them how to treat their patients. what meds. to dish out and in what quantity and quality, what outrageous payment plans designed to discourage one from even visiting a Doctor! That and all the present day hype over alternative medicine. And all for threat of loosing their practice. So many start out with sweat, and blood and money, in hopes to follow the Hippocratic oath. One by it’s very nature has been designed to thwart them at every turn… Add to this, they work them like race horses! Tragic! We The People, need to change this immediately, if not sooner!
Physician Suicide 101: Secrets, Lies & Solutions By Dr. Pamela Wible, M.D. will hopefully serve as a stepping-stone to start discussing Physician Health Programs (PHPs) and their relationship to physician suicide.
The current state-of-affairs is one of unrestrained managerial authority and absolute power with no meaningful oversight, regulation or accountability. Moreover, the authority bestowed on this group is both illegitimate and irrational. The Federation of State Physician Health Programs is composed of American Society of Addiction Medicine “specialists” in “Addiction Medicine.” The ASAM is not even recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties as a bona fide specialty. It is a Self-Designated-Medical-Specialty; an AMA term used to keep track of what any group of doctors is calling themselves. American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABMS) “board certification” is little more than a diploma mill. Yet these “specialists” are now in charge of ALL things related to PHYSICIAN HEALTH. Many of the physicians running these programs had their licenses revoked and got them back by claiming salvation through the good graces of Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step methodology. Many have felony convictions. Some have double felonies.
At best we have unqualified zealots. But one major problem I have heard over and over again from physicians forced into these programs is an absolute lack of justice, empathy and even civility by those in charge. Misconduct, fraud, and even crimes are being reported. Perhaps the 12-step salvation is just a ruse for some of them; a convenient cloak under which to hide all manner of abuse with impunity and immunity.
These individuals have been granted unrestrained managerial prerogative and absolute power over doctors. They decide not only who to monitor but how that monitoring proceeds in every last detail. Our fates, literally, lie in the hands of this group. No more physicians should die by this system of institutional injustice, bullying and pseudoscience. The conflicts-of-interest are abhorrent and would be incomprehensible in any other venue.
Isn’t it time we take charge? And the solution is fairly simple.
Oversight, regulation, and auditing by OUTSIDE groups. That is how it’s done everywhere else. Why do these guys get a pass?
Accountability is a rule not an exception. Hopefully this article will succeed in framing certain questions for the medical profession; questions that we all need to think about now before the door closes for good.
This desperately needs to be talked about. A big issue is the powers at be keeping the number of doctors low so they make more cash but that also means working shifts than are, more or less, inhumane in an awfully stressful environment.
I would suggest social media and maybe trying local media who are usually more flexible. As in the local paper which also has online articles. They usually take reader op-eds!
I am posting on WordPress, Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Tubmlr, Pinterist, Reddit, Stumbleupon and +google so far. If any other suggestions please let me know. To give you an idea how bad the media black-out is 3 doctors being monitored by the Oklahoma PHP killed themselves within 30 days of one another last August and it did not even make the local headlines!
Yes, and they are adding another component to it–“physician burnout” and encouraging self-referrals and referrals from others for an “occupational medicine” evaluation linked to a “voluntary” one-year monitoring contract with the PHP. Of course the evaluation will be at one of their for profit assessment centers and “voluntary” is open to interpretation. No one is talking about this due to a mixture of apathy, fear, indifference, ignorance and time-constraints. This needs to be exposed “outside” of the medical profession. The mainstream media is blinkered and the perpetrators have removed themselves from accountability (morally and legally). Any help with exposing this would be gratefully appreciated. It does impact us all–or will shortly anyway.
I think giving APN’s more power and jobs would be helpful. Also, nurses at most any level are very capable.
In the larger picture we need to move away from the corporate medicine model. We need to focus on establishing health and wellness prior to disease. That is where we should be investing the most – nutrition and exercise.
Unfortunately the long arm of this group involves APNs and nurses in many states. I have been getting a lot of emails from nurses, NPs, and PA’s in Florida about the injustice and abuse occurring there. Most people are afraid to post in my comments section for fear of retribution (even some who had their licenses revoked a decade ago!–the group has instilled in them a “learned helplessness” (by design). But the only way to fight this is to come together and be heard as one loud voice of reason and truth.
The complaints I am hearing about the head of the Professionals Recovery Network of Florida are horrible but there is no oversight, regulation or accountability.
In 2000 when he approached the CT Medical Board with getting his license back two board members were opposed due to his long term history of manipulating the system. If you look him up in the Connecticut Licensing website all the sordid details can be seen: https://www.elicense.ct.gov/Lookup/LicenseLookup.aspx
These include the following statements: “The twice weekly random, observed urine screens imposed upon petitioner by the 1992 and 1994 Consent Agreements were insufficient to detect his then on-going substance abuse. Petitioner WAS QUITE ADEPT AT MANIPULATING The SYSTEM TO AVOID DETECTION.” (my emphasis).
But he got it back under the 12-step salvation card, became “board certified” in “addiction medicine” and said petitioner is now running the entire Health Professionals Program in Florida–nurses, doctors, and any licensed medical practitioner is in the hands of said petitioner. Brilliant! Let’s not just give him his license back but how about we put him in a leadership position with no transparency, regulation or accountability and put all the medical professionals careers and lives in his hands. Put him in a position of complete power and control like Josef Mengele at the gates of Auschwitz. Put health professionals lives and livelihoods in his hands alone.
It is very hard to get one’s head around the decisions made here.
In all probability the majority are true but in this sick system these comments are considered the gibberish of impaired and disruptive physicians. Delegitimize the opponent. Political abuse of psychiatry. Label the accused as deviant to disregard the claims of the accused.
How about we just apply Occam’s razor or a little bit of common sense? The veil of 12-step holiness is merely a smokescreen. Most of these guys probably thought why the Hell didn’t I think of this sooner?
Disrupted Physician 
Reblogged this on Big Red Carpet Nursing and commented:
Interesting and important read.
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wow, thank you for sharing this. I will share with my friends.
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Thank you! Please do- we need more public awareness of this-Michael
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Great! – Greg
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Awful. I had no idea.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Eeee Gads! Most on that list appear to be male! I sense that part of the problem is that Governments try to, and generally succeed at telling them how to treat their patients. what meds. to dish out and in what quantity and quality, what outrageous payment plans designed to discourage one from even visiting a Doctor! That and all the present day hype over alternative medicine. And all for threat of loosing their practice. So many start out with sweat, and blood and money, in hopes to follow the Hippocratic oath. One by it’s very nature has been designed to thwart them at every turn… Add to this, they work them like race horses! Tragic! We The People, need to change this immediately, if not sooner!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Reblogged this on Disrupted Physician and commented:
Physician Suicide 101: Secrets, Lies & Solutions By Dr. Pamela Wible, M.D. will hopefully serve as a stepping-stone to start discussing Physician Health Programs (PHPs) and their relationship to physician suicide.
The current state-of-affairs is one of unrestrained managerial authority and absolute power with no meaningful oversight, regulation or accountability. Moreover, the authority bestowed on this group is both illegitimate and irrational. The Federation of State Physician Health Programs is composed of American Society of Addiction Medicine “specialists” in “Addiction Medicine.” The ASAM is not even recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties as a bona fide specialty. It is a Self-Designated-Medical-Specialty; an AMA term used to keep track of what any group of doctors is calling themselves. American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABMS) “board certification” is little more than a diploma mill. Yet these “specialists” are now in charge of ALL things related to PHYSICIAN HEALTH. Many of the physicians running these programs had their licenses revoked and got them back by claiming salvation through the good graces of Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step methodology. Many have felony convictions. Some have double felonies.
At best we have unqualified zealots. But one major problem I have heard over and over again from physicians forced into these programs is an absolute lack of justice, empathy and even civility by those in charge. Misconduct, fraud, and even crimes are being reported. Perhaps the 12-step salvation is just a ruse for some of them; a convenient cloak under which to hide all manner of abuse with impunity and immunity.
These individuals have been granted unrestrained managerial prerogative and absolute power over doctors. They decide not only who to monitor but how that monitoring proceeds in every last detail. Our fates, literally, lie in the hands of this group. No more physicians should die by this system of institutional injustice, bullying and pseudoscience. The conflicts-of-interest are abhorrent and would be incomprehensible in any other venue.
Isn’t it time we take charge? And the solution is fairly simple.
Oversight, regulation, and auditing by OUTSIDE groups. That is how it’s done everywhere else. Why do these guys get a pass?
Accountability is a rule not an exception. Hopefully this article will succeed in framing certain questions for the medical profession; questions that we all need to think about now before the door closes for good.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I will work to make as many people as possible aware of this abuse.
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[…] Physician Suicide. […]
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[…] http://chaoticpharmacology.com/2015/02/15/physician-suicide-2/ (reblogged from Disrupted Physician) — Original post here: http://disruptedphysician.com/2014/11/19/1817/ […]
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This desperately needs to be talked about. A big issue is the powers at be keeping the number of doctors low so they make more cash but that also means working shifts than are, more or less, inhumane in an awfully stressful environment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you–the mainstream media and the medical profession is ignoring all of this (for a variety of reasons including this: http://disruptedphysician.com/2014/11/26/the-medical-profession-moral-entrepreneurship-moral-panics-and-social-control-4/). If you have any ideas about how to get this out in the public eye please help. I am looking for creative allies-Thanks Michael
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I would suggest social media and maybe trying local media who are usually more flexible. As in the local paper which also has online articles. They usually take reader op-eds!
Let me know if there is anything I could do!
-Paul
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am posting on WordPress, Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Tubmlr, Pinterist, Reddit, Stumbleupon and +google so far. If any other suggestions please let me know. To give you an idea how bad the media black-out is 3 doctors being monitored by the Oklahoma PHP killed themselves within 30 days of one another last August and it did not even make the local headlines!
LikeLike
Wow yeah – you could seek out more progressive and independent news media!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, and they are adding another component to it–“physician burnout” and encouraging self-referrals and referrals from others for an “occupational medicine” evaluation linked to a “voluntary” one-year monitoring contract with the PHP. Of course the evaluation will be at one of their for profit assessment centers and “voluntary” is open to interpretation. No one is talking about this due to a mixture of apathy, fear, indifference, ignorance and time-constraints. This needs to be exposed “outside” of the medical profession. The mainstream media is blinkered and the perpetrators have removed themselves from accountability (morally and legally). Any help with exposing this would be gratefully appreciated. It does impact us all–or will shortly anyway.
LikeLike
I think giving APN’s more power and jobs would be helpful. Also, nurses at most any level are very capable.
In the larger picture we need to move away from the corporate medicine model. We need to focus on establishing health and wellness prior to disease. That is where we should be investing the most – nutrition and exercise.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Unfortunately the long arm of this group involves APNs and nurses in many states. I have been getting a lot of emails from nurses, NPs, and PA’s in Florida about the injustice and abuse occurring there. Most people are afraid to post in my comments section for fear of retribution (even some who had their licenses revoked a decade ago!–the group has instilled in them a “learned helplessness” (by design). But the only way to fight this is to come together and be heard as one loud voice of reason and truth.
The complaints I am hearing about the head of the Professionals Recovery Network of Florida are horrible but there is no oversight, regulation or accountability.
http://www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Scott_Teitelbaum/reviews
In 2000 when he approached the CT Medical Board with getting his license back two board members were opposed due to his long term history of manipulating the system. If you look him up in the Connecticut Licensing website all the sordid details can be seen: https://www.elicense.ct.gov/Lookup/LicenseLookup.aspx
These include the following statements: “The twice weekly random, observed urine screens imposed upon petitioner by the 1992 and 1994 Consent Agreements were insufficient to detect his then on-going substance abuse. Petitioner WAS QUITE ADEPT AT MANIPULATING The SYSTEM TO AVOID DETECTION.” (my emphasis).
Click to access connecticut_medical_examining_board_2000_minutes.pdf
But he got it back under the 12-step salvation card, became “board certified” in “addiction medicine” and said petitioner is now running the entire Health Professionals Program in Florida–nurses, doctors, and any licensed medical practitioner is in the hands of said petitioner. Brilliant! Let’s not just give him his license back but how about we put him in a leadership position with no transparency, regulation or accountability and put all the medical professionals careers and lives in his hands. Put him in a position of complete power and control like Josef Mengele at the gates of Auschwitz. Put health professionals lives and livelihoods in his hands alone.
It is very hard to get one’s head around the decisions made here.
And the comments here are worth reviewing. http://www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Scott_Teitelbaum/reviews
In all probability the majority are true but in this sick system these comments are considered the gibberish of impaired and disruptive physicians. Delegitimize the opponent. Political abuse of psychiatry. Label the accused as deviant to disregard the claims of the accused.
How about we just apply Occam’s razor or a little bit of common sense? The veil of 12-step holiness is merely a smokescreen. Most of these guys probably thought why the Hell didn’t I think of this sooner?
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/2557477/Dr-SCOTT%2BA.-TEITELBAUM-Gainesville-FL.html
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Well starting with “common sense” would do wonders at this point!
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[…] Physician Suicide. […]
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