The current physician health program/ medical board  system is beyond fixing. We need a mass movement to demand radical progressive change. Doctors are dropping like flies!  In almost all states today any physician referred for an “assessment” by their state PHP  will be mandated to do so at  a facility just like Ridgeview.   There is no choice. There is one difference however.   When the Ridgeview suicides occurred the plethora of laboratory developed tests were not yet introduced.

A decade ago Dr. Gregory Skipper introduced the first laboratory developed test for forensic testing and used it on doctors in physician health programs.   These non-FDA approved tests of unknown validity presented a new unpredictable variable into the mix with a positive test necessitating another assessment at an out of state treatment facility—a “PHP-approved” assessment facility. The addition of this laboratory Russian Roulette renders the current system much worse than it was at the time of the Ridgeview suicides.

And if a positive test occurs there are no safeguards protecting the donor. LDTs are unregulated by the FDA. There is no oversight and no one to file a complaint with.

State PHPs currently  have no oversight or regulation.  They police themselves. Medical boards, departments of public health and medical societies provide no oversight. They don’t look and they don’t care. Zero accountability.   This needs to change.

Source: Physician Suicide and Organizational Justice: The Role of Hopelessness, Helplessness and Defeat

Please donate to this effort below.  Your contribution can and will make a difference.  https://www.gofundme.com/PHPReform