gaging Radiocasts
Sometimes it is too late.
If you’ve listened to My Friend Ben, you know it’s about trying to make a difference.
State “physician health programs” are prone to over-protecting impaired doctors and their licenses to practice. Unless substantive changes are made, more people will unnecessarily – preventably – end up injured or dead.
Current monitoring, protocols and processes don’t go far enough. Patients and the public are routinely kept in the dark when doctors are at their worst. It’s far too late for those injured or killed … and all the more reason to take action now.
If you think a doctor is at risk, showing signs of impairment or emotional extremes, don’t let friendship or other concerns get in the way. You can refer such physicians to a state program designed to support recovery and public safety.
Benefit of doubt not in doubt…just too pronounced
Unfortunately, painfully evident shortcomings afflict Florida’s program (PRN) and comparable programs nationwide. As My Friend Ben illustrates, the most egregious participants may never truly recover yet still be counted as “success stories” – by retaining their licenses.
Some doctors don’t deserve more “benefit of the doubt.” They should be in irrefutable doubt at times when they are given way too much benefit.
YOUR Voice Counts!
When visiting a doctor for consultation, don’t be reluctant to ask tough questions like whether they’ve been disciplined before. Just beware they may not feel obligated to tell you – or gloss over any critical facts. Trust your instincts. Competence and confidence may appear intimidating. Demeaning or condescending attitudes are much more overt causes for concern.
Charming can also be disarming.
It’s hard to know or detect the signs of impairment. Do we draw sharper lines with doctors? Are we looking hard enough to better understand? Or doing enough to make a meaningful difference?
My Friend Ben captures how an oral surgeon had accomplices in his derailment and violent demize. Innocent lives were taken along the way as well as in the end.
Did Dr. Benjamin First fool the medical boards, program administrators, family, friends, programs and patients. I doubt it. We likely all inadvertently conspired in enabling the horror story behind this accomplished surgeon as he unravelled beyond repair. Maybe it was a collective sigh and misperception…someone else will intervene if this ever gets bad enough.
It did.
Public department of health websites can provide related insight if you dig deep enough or request public records on doctors with discipline histories. Such options, our research found, can be misleading or woefully scant on details.
Dr. First had no public record of disciplinary action in his 20 years as a surgeon. No matter how badly he behaved or abused women, drugs and alcohol, nothing stopped him from practicing what he called “shucking teeth.”
Even when hospitalized multilple times for severe hallucenegenic overdoses on nitrous oxide – on hand at his maxillofacial surgery centers in New Port Richey and Palm Harbor Fla.
Another option to consider when doctors go downhill is file a complaint with the department of health, although the enforcement process may make you wonder if it’s worth the effort. These are just more reasons why more needs to be done to ensure – at the very least – that patients are better informed.
If authorities in position to make a difference don’t do more, you may never really know who’s behind that scalpel or license to practice.
Take a few minutes to write your state representative. Feel free to link to tellitwrite.org or the My Friend Ben podcast. We need to speak up for those who no longer can – and those who will be at risk in the future.
