The Medical Board of California last week decided it was not capable of effectively running the Physician Diversion Program, which for the past 27 years has been monitoring and providing guidance to physicians with substance abuse problems. The medical board voted unanimously at its quarterly meeting last week in South San Francisco to eliminate the program, pointing to operating flaws identified in recent audits.

The medical board’s decision to close the program was made despite concerns voiced by CMA and others in the medical community that closing the program would seriously impact patient safety. CMA strongly believes that the program is vital to not only protect public safety but also to preserve the rights of medically disabled physicians.

“We are profoundly disturbed and disappointed that the medical board has abandoned diversion, which is an enlightened and effective approach to public protection,” says CMA Speaker of the House James, Hay, MD, who testified on behalf of CMA at the meeting. “Closing the program leaves patients at significantly greater risk because discipline is now the only option.” Oftentimes the process of formally disciplining a physician can take a year or more.  The diversion program, on the other hand, has the power to require impaired physicians to immediately cease practice. 

Diversion has been the target of criticism periodically over the years due to widely held public prejudice and misunderstanding about the disease of addiction, especially when it occurs in high-risk professionals.

CMA and the California Society for Addiction Medicine urged the medical board not to abandon its responsibilities, but rather to take the necessary steps to strengthen and properly oversee this important program. 

CMA has been asked by the medical board to participate in a summit with other stakeholders to identify a viable alternative to a medical-board-run diversion program.

Contact: Sandra Bressler, 415/882-5171 or sbressler@cmanet.org.