Issue #31 December 2020/January 2021

 
 
 

This CPPPH newsletter aims to keep readers abreast of current developements and relevant information about physician health and wellbeing in California.

All past issues of CPPPH newsletter are available from the CPPPH website: www.CPPPH.org.

Definitions

Wellness activities address quality of life and professional satisfaction for all physicians. Wellbeing activities focus on an individual physician and provide resources for identifying, evaluating, referring, treating, and monitoring for physicians when addiction, mental health, behavioral issues, and the effects of aging are a concern.


Confidential Assistance Over the Phone

The Physicans’ and Dentists’ Confidential Assistance Line is a 24-hour phone service providing completely confidential doctor-to-doctor assistance for physicians experiencing substance use or mental health issues. Call:

  • (213) 383-2691

 

Send Us Your Comments

We want to hear from you. Send comments to gjara@cppph.org.


Late Career Physicians

As we look at medical staff policies that address the health and performance issues experienced by some late career practitioners, we find little, or no, research to guide the development of fair and effective policies and procedures. We may now have the opportunity to get some.

A team that includes persons from medicine, law, health services research, and bioethics is beginning a study at the University of Washington. In the description of the study, they say, “There is a strong consensus that passive approaches … are insufficient and that there is a need for better tools and policies.” To download a full description of the study and research team, click HERE.

You can take part in this project. The study team is inviting participation from those who will submit a copy of their policies and procedures, and/or be interviewed individually and/or take part in one of the study’s virtual focus group. To contact the study team, send email to Paulina Osinska, MPH at osinsp@uw.edu.

Note that the next CPPPH/CSAM videoconference in March will focus on this subject and we have invited a member of the research team to be one of the presenters and answer your questions.

 



CPPPH/CSAM Videoconference March 18

The next CPPPH/CSAM videoconference on March 18 will be a 90-minute session on wellbeing committees’ work with late career physicians. Watch for the announcement in February. For more information, click HERE.
 


Virtual Recovery Meetings

Recovery meetings, or mutual support meetings, are frequently a required element in monitoring agreements for health care professionals, and this article in the New York Times talks about how they have functioned during the ban on in-person gatherings during the year of COVID-19.

Christopher Bundy, MD, president of the Federation of State Physician Health Programs, the group representing the 48 state physician health programs, said that hundreds of physicians in these programs are attending regular virtual professionally monitored meetings in which they meet with specialists for peer support and to assess their progress.

With information from several places across the US, the article describes this approach and concludes that it began as a stopgap way to get through the pandemic, but both participants and providers say virtual sessions have some clear advantages and will likely become a permanent part of recovery. To read the full article, click HERE.

 


FSPHP 2021 Meeting

The Federation of State Physician Health Programs 2021 meeting will be on-line virtual sessions, once a week over three weeks: Tuesday, March 30 and Thursdays, April 1, 8 and 15, 2021. To see speakers, topics and times, click HERE.

Early bird registration fees, until February 28, are $450 for FSPHP members and $550 for non-members.

 


Available from CPPPH

You can read all the past issues of CPPPH eNews HERE.
Five CPPPH guideline documents are available HERE.
 


 

 
 
 

Issue #31, December 2020/January 2021

Our mailing address is:
CPPPH
One Capital Mall, Suite 800
Sacramento, California 95814