Physician Wellness Services Launches an Integrated Solution for the Challenges Surrounding Disruptive Physicians

Press release from BusinessWire.com

Physician Wellness Services has launched a comprehensive suite of services, designed to help physicians and health care organizations proactively manage the stress and other mental and behavioral issues that can lead to disruptive physician behavior and performance issues, and to deal with physicians quickly, effectively and compassionately whenever problems occur. Designed specifically for physicians and the organizations that employ them, services include Physician Intervention, The Physician Employee Assistance Program (EAP), as well as training and consulting.

“Although practicing medicine can be extremely stressful, there are ways to prevent that stress from becoming destructive,” said Douglas Adamek, PhD, the behavioral health pioneer who founded Physician Wellness Services. “Too often we’re called to deal with serious problems that could have been prevented had health care organizations stepped in when a doctor first exhibited signs of inappropriate behavior. Our philosophy has always been that it’s far more cost effective to create an environment that promotes healthy behavior in the first place, rather than calling us in after a problem occurs.”

The effects of doctors who bully, belittle and intimidate staff, patients and peers have been addressed in medical journals and research for decades. Recently, the problem has been quantified:

Multi-year research done by Vanderbilt University Medical Center showed that 9 percent of physicians accounted for 50 percent of unsolicited patient complaints — and over 50 percent of malpractice dollars paid out over the study period.

A 2004 study by the American College of Physician Executives found that 30 percent of respondents found that problems cropped up with various physicians from time to time, but 70 percent saw most problems involving the same physicians over and over.

According to the Annals of Internal Medicine, at least one-third of all physicians will experience, at some time in their careers, a period during which they have a physical, mental or behavioral condition that impairs their ability to practice medicine safely.

In response to growing concerns about patient safety, the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) issued a Sentinel Event Alert on disruptive physicians that requires health care organizations to publish a defined code of conduct and have a specific process in place for addressing disruptive physician behavior.

“The Joint Commission’s Sentinel Alert was a national wake-up call to the importance of interventions, assessment and consulting from an independent source,” said Adamek. “We are the only company in the nation that provides health care organizations, physicians and their families a total solution that meets JCAHO requirements.”

About Physician Wellness Services
Physician Wellness Services is the only company in the nation that provides doctors and health care organizations a comprehensive, end-to-end solution that includes:

The Physician EAP: an Employee Assistance Program designed specifically for physicians and their families to help prevent and address any personal or professional issues. The Physician EAP includes easy access to physician peer coaches, as well as master’s and doctorate-level licensed mental and behavioral health professionals.

Physician Intervention Services: a suite of research-based, escalating intervention services to help health care organizations manage any performance or behavioral problems that do occur.
Training & Consulting: integrated services designed to help organization leaders, physicians and their coworkers address issues that affect their personal and professional wellbeing.

For information, please visit www.physicianwellnessservices.com

About Workplace Behavioral Solutions
Headquartered in Minneapolis, Workplace Behavioral Solutions, Inc. is the parent company of the Physician Wellness Services and Midwest EAP Solutions divisions. With more than 25 years of experience working with organizations large and small, and hundreds of thousands of covered lives, Workplace Behavioral Solutions offers both national scope and multi-disciplinary expertise, but is at its core a tight-knit group of professionals with a shared vision and commitment to highly personalized service.