Susan Haney, MD, a board-certified emergency physician in Coos Bay, Ore., was 2 years into her career when she had her first manic episode, likely a side effect of the steroid prednisone, which she had been prescribed for an asthma flare-up. Her boss at Bay Area Hospital told her that if she wanted to return to work, she would need to have written clearance from the medical board.
In retrospect, Dr. Haney says, “I don’t think they had any idea of what they would set in motion.”
Dr. Haney says the Oregon Medical Board posted her name and the nondisciplinary action on their website and in their newsletter. Her local newspaper read it and ran a story about her. “They effectively announced my mental illness to the general public despite my objections,” she says.
During the next decade, she had two more manic episodes, and more board investigations and actions followed. Despite being cleared for work each time, Dr. Haney says the board actions decimated her career in emergency medicine and her income, which is about half of what she would have earned by now. She is frustrated, sad, and angry about what happened but considers herself lucky to be practicing medicine in urgent care.
Being investigated is scary
After her first manic episode in 2006, Dr. Haney contacted the board’s medical director, a retired general surgeon, who told her the only way the board would authorize her return to work was if she agreed to open a board investigation.
She gave them the green light because she thought she had nothing to fear – she was cooperating fully and wasn’t impaired. Now Dr. Haney says she was naive. “The board is not your friend,” she says.
Dr. Haney was also anxious to return to work. She worked in a seven-person emergency department, and two colleagues were on maternity leave or medical leave.
“My colleagues kept calling asking me when I was going to return to work, and I kept saying, ‘I don’t know because the board won’t tell me,’ “ she says.
She was also feeling a lot of financial pressure. She was 2 years out of residency, owed $100,000 in student loans, and had just bought a house.
“I was really scared – I didn’t know how long this would last or if they would let me return to work. Early on, I even got a fitness for duty evaluation from the state’s consulting psychiatrist, who cleared me for work, and the board still wouldn’t let me return. They told me I had to go through their bureaucracy and a board meeting, which didn’t make sense to me.”
Dr. Haney consented to give the board’s investigative staff access to her medical records because she feared that if she challenged them, they would suspend or revoke her license immediately.
After investigating her for 4 months, the board cleared Dr. Haney to return to work at Bay Area Hospital. She agreed to the board’s “corrective action” terms: She would continue to receive psychiatric care, maintain a physician-patient relationship with a primary care physician, and enroll in the Health Physicians Program (HPP) for substance abuse monitoring.
Dr. Haney suspects that the board investigation damaged her reputation at work. “Before this, my work evaluations were consistently excellent. Afterwards, they were all adequate. I don’t think that was a coincidence.”