Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Is Your Surgeon Drunk? - What do you think is the worst job to be drunk at? or is there such a thing?

Is Your Surgeon Drunk?
Alcohol use disorders are a significant issue among U.S. surgeons, a new survey reveals. The online, anonymous poll indicated that 15% of surgeons appear to suffer from alcohol abuse or dependence: nearly 14% of male surgeons and 26% of female surgeons. Those figures exceed the 8% to 12% figure typically cited for alcohol abuse rates among the public at large, according to the study published in the Archives of Surgery. “But it should be said that a number of studies have shown that direct patient harm associated with impairment due to chemical dependency is very, very rare,” said survey lead author Dr. Michael Oreskovich, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. “The chance of a patient being injured by an impaired surgeon is really very uncommon. Something like one in 10,000. So it just doesn’t happen very much,” he noted.