Maryland Physician Health Program Celebrates 45 Years

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PHYSICIAN HEALTH IN MARYLAND

Chapter 1: In the Beginning – 1978-1984

The Physician Rehabilitation Committee was formed in 1977 at the semi-annual meeting of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland (Med Chi). The committee first met on October 10, 1977, under Dr. James Davis, the 1977-1978 President of Med Chi.

The planners included Drs. Joseph Berman, Maxwell Weisman, Charles Bagley, Joseph Chambers, and James Davis. The first chair was Jerome J. Coller, M.D., an internist from Pikesville. Dr Coller, a former chairperson of the Commission on Medical Discipline, could no longer without attempted intervention, accept physicians with treatable illnesses losing their medical licenses in Maryland. The committee was established at the direction of the Executive Committee of MedChi.

In 1978, the first full year of the Committee’s existence, they assisted thirty-five physicians with an average age of 53. These were primarily later-stage alcoholic, primary care practitioners who often had physical problems because of their drinking. Many required detoxification and inpatient rehabilitation. Several died of active illness, some retired, and a few left the state of Maryland. Still, most reached abstinence and a few entered true recovery.

Under Dr. Coller’s energetic direction, physician assistance groups were formed in Baltimore, Bethesda, and on the Eastern Shore. Enthusiastic physicians on the Committee formed intervention teams, of two or three members each. The teams traveled from Oakland in Garrett County to Crisfield in Somerset County to try and help their troubled colleagues. These doctors were Robert McDermott, William Dixon, Leo Hennigan, Timothy Barilla, John Griswold, Robert Kent, Patrick Adams, Edson Moody, Edward Kitlowski, Michael Bisco, Michael Hayes, Richard Anderson, Irving Cohen, Robert McDaniel, and Martin Valaske. They all devoted countless, selfless hours to the recovery of their fellow physicians.

In time treatment contacts were organized, and procedures and guidelines were established. All the while, Ms. Constance Townsend, executive assistant to Med Chi’s executive director, provided administrative support services to the committee. MedChi’s Executive Committee supported the committee, the county medical societies participated in the committee’s activities, and the auxiliary had a representative. From 1977 to 1985, the Physician Rehabilitation Committee made a difference in the lives of over 200 physicians.