ABSTRACT
Mental and physical impairment investigations As stated throughout this text, state medical boards are charged with the protection of the public. Perhaps one of the most important, if not the most important, problem state medical boards face is the impaired physician. Organized medicine should be accountable to the public in assuring competent care to patients by competent physicians.1 This accountability is strained when a physician becomes unable to practice with reasonable skill due to an impaired condition.1 The term “impairment” is often equated or synonymous with “illness.”2 According to the literature, a distinction between these two terms is critical when it comes to dealing with an impaired physician in terms of public protection and in terms of what is best for the physician by way of treatment. This will be discussed in detail later in the chapter.
