"Disruptive" physicians
Internal Medicine News ran this story on "disruptive" physicians. As a doctor, it's always fun for me to read about surgeons who bring firearms into the O.R.
A Dr. Ronald Schouten presented data on 82 such doctors referred for psychiatric evaluations. "Displays of anger" or behavior that "spooked" colleagues (such as wearing a gun in the operating room) were the most common cause for referral. Other problems were sexual harassment, theft, substance abuse and one of my favorites, "communication" problems.
Anesthesiology makes up the most popular specialty for these problems which really surprised me. Most anesthesiologists I know are rather laid back types. Among the internal medicine specialty, cardiologists are the most likely offending subspecialists. Surgeons are surprisingly under-represented. I see this as a good thing. I am not warmed by the idea of an angry surgeon with unresolved issues looming over me with sharp cutlery. Particularly since I will probably have already been anesthetized by a psychopath.
In California, the state medical board investigates some 10,000 complaints a year 20% of which are felt to warrant further follow-up.
It seems that, although there's not a lot of data on this, most such physicians are deemed able to return to medicine hopefully cured.
The article closed with the following observation:
“Physicians are amazingly lacking in insight into their own behavior,” Dr. Schouten said. “One of the things treatment programs struggle with is how to teach insight to these very bright, well-trained people.”
Remarkable.
A Dr. Ronald Schouten presented data on 82 such doctors referred for psychiatric evaluations. "Displays of anger" or behavior that "spooked" colleagues (such as wearing a gun in the operating room) were the most common cause for referral. Other problems were sexual harassment, theft, substance abuse and one of my favorites, "communication" problems.
Anesthesiology makes up the most popular specialty for these problems which really surprised me. Most anesthesiologists I know are rather laid back types. Among the internal medicine specialty, cardiologists are the most likely offending subspecialists. Surgeons are surprisingly under-represented. I see this as a good thing. I am not warmed by the idea of an angry surgeon with unresolved issues looming over me with sharp cutlery. Particularly since I will probably have already been anesthetized by a psychopath.
In California, the state medical board investigates some 10,000 complaints a year 20% of which are felt to warrant further follow-up.
It seems that, although there's not a lot of data on this, most such physicians are deemed able to return to medicine hopefully cured.
The article closed with the following observation:
“Physicians are amazingly lacking in insight into their own behavior,” Dr. Schouten said. “One of the things treatment programs struggle with is how to teach insight to these very bright, well-trained people.”
Remarkable.
posted by The Medicine Man at 3:46 PM
4 Comments:
.
This is probably apocryphal, but I found this on the net a while back:
Doctors:
* The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000
* Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000
* Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.
Guns:
* The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000
* The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500
* The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.
Statistics courtesy of F.B.I.
Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do."
FACT: Not everyone has a gun, but almost everyone has at least one doctor.
Please alert your friends to this alarming threat immediately. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!
;-))
If we ban doctors, You'll have to support me on the welfare rolls.
John
.
No, no, no!
If doctors are outlawed, only outlaws will have doctors!!
;))
Have a great weekend!
Doctors with PTSD?
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