If you are referred to NCPHP by your licensure board or employer, simply call our office to schedule an appointment for an initial evaluation with one of our trained professionals.
Our team members have years of experience working with medical professionals and are sympathetic to the challenges faced in today’s medical environment. Your meeting with an NCPHP staff member will last two to three hours depending on your particular situation. At the end of this meeting, NCPHP staff will usually have enough information to make a recommendation for next steps. In some cases, we will need to obtain additional information from collateral sources.
NOTE: This information can only be collected with your written permission.
Upon gathering this information, we will inform you of our recommendation. This recommendation may include the following: no further action necessary, referral for assessment and/or treatment, or other community-based services. If monitoring is recommended, the following may be included in a monitoring contract: random drug screens, workplace monitor reports, therapist/coach reports, Field Coordinator visits, participation in local abstinence-based support meetings or other tools for change.
NCPHP believes in being transparent with program participants, ensuring you are aware of recommendations and expectations.
Referral to NCPHP
While governing Boards are the referral source for some program participants, hospitals, practice partners, colleagues, family members and friends, and often the participants themselves provide referrals. NCPHP excels at helping referral sources decide on how to address concerns about a medical provider. Simultaneously, physicians and other medical providers have a place they can get the help they need independent from their workplace.
Regardless of how a health care professional arrives at NCPHP, each person is treated as an individual with unique circumstances. Due to the sensitive nature of referrals, all NCPHP services are provided under the strictest anonymity and confidentiality afforded by the law.
Referrals for Family and Friends
NCPHP can also provide referrals for family and friends who need assistance in coping with a loved one’s substance use disorder or mental health issue. This can be an important step toward development of a strong support system.
Advocacy
The collective goal of our program is the attainment of a recovery lifestyle for program participants and their safe return to work. As a result of our documented monitoring, NCPHP can serve as a strong advocate for successful program participants with medical boards, insurance companies, employers, colleagues, and families.
With the expressed written permission of program participants, NCPHP will share participant information upon request with HMOs, medical staff, managed care organizations, and others. Advocacy by NCPHP can be a valuable asset to an impaired practitioner seeking privileges, employment, malpractice insurance coverage, and other services.
Education & Training
NCPHP educates and trains health care professionals on the identification of impairment and intervention procedures. Through our Speakers Bureau, our expert team members make presentations to hospitals, private practices, association and society meetings, and conferences, among other targeted venues and events.
We provide education about NCPHP services, as well as on a range of topics related to substance use disorders and other issues that can negatively impact the safety, care, and services delivered by health care professionals.
Monitoring
NCPHP monitoring and support contributes to our program’s high recovery rate. Monitoring includes various ways in which a participant’s compliance can be verified and documented.
Monitored contract terms may include:
- Random drug screens
- Attendance at abstinence-based self-help and/or Caduceus meetings
- Random visits by NCPHP Field Coordinators
- Workplace monitor reporting
- Therapist/coach reporting