FAILURE OF THE MEDICAL STAFF TO FULFILL CERTAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP62-01094R000500030005-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2000
• Sequence Number: 5
• Content Type: MF

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Approved FQ ease 2000/09/06 : PCB; V 194R000500030005-6
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, Medical Staff
THROUGH : Deputy Director (Support)
SUBJECT : Failure of the Medical Staff to Fulfill Certain Responsibilities
1. A number of individual grievance cases have arisen because of
poor personnel administration in operating components coupled with failure
of the Medical Staff to fulfill certain responsibilities. These cases
25X1 A9ai-nclude:
2. Because of these cases, it has been necessary to examine the position
of the Chief, Medical Staff on the release of medical information. The
Medical Staff has pleaddhe doctor/patient relationship as the reason for
not releasing individual medical files or detailed medical diagnosis outside
of the Medical Staff. The Inspector General's survey stated that it was
"beyond the scope of this report to evaluate the reasons underlying the
professional ethics of the Chief, Medical Staff in refusing to release medical
information per se.." and recommended that his position "be approved, with
the provision that he release to competent authority (Deputy Directors or
higher) sufficient information in the form of sanitized summaries, either
written or oral, to support administrative or executive action by the Agency
without undue embarrassment or repercussion."
3. It must be recognized that the Medical Staff is not a group of
private practitioners who are retained or paid by their patients. The Medical
Staff works for the Agency. It exists for the purpose of providing support
for the operating components. The responsibility of-the Medical Staff is first
to the Agency and only secondarily to the individual employee. On 6 September
1955 the General Counsel concluded that:
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4. Supervisors need and are entitled to comprehensive expert opinion on
all aspects of the mental and physical health of their subordinates which bearW
on proper supervision and utilization of the employee. At the same time,
employees have a right to expect that their superiors are aware of medical
factors which may affect their performance. The required medical opinion
should cover particularly the possible temporary effects of the illness or
treatment on an employee's attitude and capabilities
Q.nd the medical program for the
recovery of the patient. If this information is provided to supervisors there
should be no need for the operating offices to complain to the Inspector General
that they are unable to obtain satisfactory answers to their medical questions.
5. It is recommended that where the attitude or capabilities of an
employee may be temporarily affected by his illness, convalescence or treatment
the Medical Staff should discuss the case in sufficient detail with the
employee's supervisor to permit the latter to take inrlaccount the limitations
and requirements of the medical factors in supervising his employee. This
discussion should take place even though the employee may be under the jurisdic-
tion of a Public Health Service hospital as an out-patient or under the care of
a private physician.
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6. In some instancesA the Medical Staff has failed to follow4 p the
progress of employee-patients on limited duty status and also has failed
to follow4up the action taken by operating components in response to the
findings of the Medical Staff.
7. It is recommended that the Medical Staff conduct sufficiently
frequent discussions with both employee-patients and their supervisors to
determine the patients' progress and whether or not medical recommendations
are being acted upon by the operating component.
8. It has been observed that some professional members of the Medical
Staff have exhibited an immature, impersonal and bureaucratic attitude
toward employee-patients. In these instancesy these members are serving
merely as technicians and not as doctors in the real sense of the term as
first expressed by Hippocrates when he wrote "some patients, though conscious
that their condition is perilous, recover their health simply through their
contentment with the goodness of their physician." The application of this
principle through common-sense-psychology will solve many administrative-medico
problems before they require a professional psychiatrist or reach the Inspector
General.
9. It is recommended that the Medical Staff demonstrate sympathetic
understanding and interest in employee-patients and indicate a willingness to
assist in their speedy and complete recovery through close and continuing
liaison with the employee's supervisor and the private physician or Public
Health Service facility actually treating the patient.
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