Do Medical Licensing Questions on Health Conditions Pose a Barrier to Physicians Seeking Treatment? A Literature Review

Physician health is strongly connected to patient health outcomes such that barriers to seeking help and medical care for impaired physicians may compromise patient safety and quality of care. It is important to understand and identify barriers that may reduce the likelihood of physicians seeking help. Using medical licensure questions that necessitate self-reporting of health conditions is one of the ways regulatory bodies such as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) seeks to protect the public and ensure physician competency. The objective of this paper is to review the current body of literature on the impact of these medical licensure questions on physician health-seeking behavior as well as patient care. Five online databases (Scopus, APA PsychINFO, Web of Science, PubMed, and MEDLINE) were searched using combined key terms to identify relevant articles. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, nine primary quantitative studies were selected. Results suggest that licensure applications with questions on previous impairments and mental health condition acts as both a barrier to reporting and to seeking care. These findings highlight the need for further research in examining the utility of health licensure questions in identifying impaired physicians and their impact on the quality of patient care.