colleagues impaired, acting drunk, acting incompetent do not report it. why keep the dangerous information quiet? joining us now is dr. jason giles, board certified anesthesiologist, an addiction specialist to suffered from alcoholism himself. thank you for being with us. you re welcome, good morning, alisyn, how is everybody. we re well here. massachusetts general surveyed 2000 doctors and said that 17% of them had encountered an impaired colleague in the past three years and yet alerted no one of the first of all, why are so many doctors working under the influence of something? well, that study that you re talking about is in jama the way it s phrased, have you come across an impaired colleague. 17% were not involved directly in the reporting. i think there s a prom with the study. do you reject the premise? you were a doctor, you have an interesting story yourself
that it s all better, but it s a lot better. that s good to know. the way the study makes it sound, obviously, nobody wants to tattletale on their friends and colleagues, but it puts patient s lives in danger, obviously, if you don t know that your surgeon or your doctor is operating under the influence. absolutely, or airline pilot or anyone else, you know, we re required to take care of one another and because we re dealing with taking care of patients, it s critical that doctors, if they have any suspicion at all, that they just go to the head of the hospital. if you re a patient and you have any suspicion at all. go to the hospital administration or go to the group administration, there s no reason that anyone has to be in fear of wondering if their doctor is okay. all right. dr. jason giles, board certified anesthesiologist, you have a very interesting personal perspective into this. thanks so much for coming on to talk about it. my pleasure, alisyn, have a great day. yo