These past few days I’ve been spending my spare time trying to learn more about Dr. Tom Horiagon MD, MoccH and his conflict with the Colorado Board of Medicine, or more accurately with some powerful bureaucrats who seem to think they are above the law.
One of the things I was curious about was why he become involved with Colorado Physician Help Program (CPHP) in 2011 and then with the Center for Personalized Education for Physicians (CPEP). Embarrassingly someone like me, who knows little of the state of today’s medical industry, might first suspect drug or alcohol dependence. It had been gnawing at me so I wrote him another email asking him about it.
His answer blindsided me:
In 2011 I was an intensivist at St Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction and I worked hours that were so intolerably long, I was not getting home for days on occasion, needed IV's to remain upright and that sort of thing. I wrote a letter to my colleagues at Western Colorado Lung Center stating that my condition was deteriorating and I needed a change in schedule or format or contract or something. My colleagues took the letter to St. Mary's Hospital administration who immediately convened a committee to try to find something wrong with my patient care.
They worked in secret for year and finally presented me with a list on concerns never raised before (except one I discussed), and initiated a quasi-legal process to exclude from the hospital staff and report me to the state board. I became suicidal, never had an attorney help, and "lost" the fair hearing. I started making pretty significant suicide efforts and I reached out to CPHP for help. I closed my practice and moved back to my home in the Front Range.
Later he added:
Physician suicide is VERY frequently precipitated by these board actions (see Pam Wible MD or Michael Langan MD or Kernan Manion MD on this topic).
That sent me back to the internet and the only way to describe what I found is to share it. I keep thinking this is what the corporate obsession with profits has achieved for USA’s medical arts. Time to make a course change, reject corporate bonus packages and refocus medicine on healing !
Vote Yes On Heath Care Reform Amendment 69
ColoradoCare
________________________________________________________
400 Doctors Commit Suicide Every Year
Published by PhysicianForFairness on May 14, 2014 | < 3 minutes
Dr. Pamela Wible from Oregon explains that 400 doctors commit suicide every year.
________________________________________________________
I sent Dr. Horiagon a copy of this before posting it here and received the following reply which is worth adding before continuing.
I find it further indication of Dr. Horiagon solid good character and professionalism.
"Go with it. Please note that after all these events, I became certified in sleep medicine.
To my knowledge, I am the only physician simultaneously certified in occupational medicine and sleep medicine.
This point adds to the irony."
TMH
________________________________________________________
Physician Burnout
(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv/) Elizabeth Bromley, MD, PhD, reviews recent data on burnout, depression and suicide in physicians, with particular emphasis on the work-related factors that appear to contribute to physician distress. Series: "UCLA Department of Pediatrics Grand Rounds" [Health and Medicine] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 28597]
(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv/) Elizabeth Bromley, MD, PhD, reviews recent data on burnout, depression and suicide in physicians, with particular emphasis on the work-related factors that appear to contribute to physician distress. Series: "UCLA Department of Pediatrics Grand Rounds" [Health and Medicine] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 28597]
Elizabeth Bromley, MD | Aug 6, 2014 | 53 minutes
Published by University of California Television (UCTV)
_______________________________________
Physician Suicide:
The Role of Hopelessness, Helplessness and Defeat.
Physician Suicide:
The Role of Hopelessness, Helplessness and Defeat.
Michael Lawrence Langan, MD | Jun 23, 2016
