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From: Robert Swotinsky MD
Date: 01 Dec 2004
Time: 18:33:35 -0800
Remote Name: 68.166.235.144
I'll make it even shorter:
A doctor is arrested for cocaine use. He's released on probation contingent on rehab. He has signed a release, we don't know how broad, allowing rehab to divulge information to the probation officer. He then tells rehab that he used cocaine while on probation, rehab tells the probation officer, and probation is revoked. You ask if rehab was legally entitled to inform the probation officer that the doctor said he used cocaine while on probation.
The extent to which rehab is legally allowed or obliged to divulge information to the probation officer depends on several things:
(1) The signed release authorizing them to divulge information,
(2) Texas law, if any, that authorizes people to inform law enforcement about impaired physicians, and
(3) Texas law, if any, that offers protection to citizens who reasonably report safety concerns in general, i.e., Good Samaritan laws.
About item 1: The lawyer has almost certainly reviewed the signed release and is not challenging it, and this suggests the release covers the rehab center for their actions in notifying probation.
About item 2: I do not know if Texas has a state law that authorizes reporting of impaired physicians. If there is such a law, the rehab counselors are probably very sensitive to compliance, since they would be expected to be experts in the identification of impaired physicians under their care.
About item 3: In most states, health care professionals are granted immunity from liability for good faith reporting to public agencies of impaired individuals where their impairment can endanger public safety.
The doctor's attorney can probably better answer these questions. But, the attorney's decision to not challenge the release would suggest that there's not much of a case, here.