Art Caplan of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Langone Medical Center recently penned an article claiming that sports teams shouldn’t be allowed to hire their own medical personnel.
In his article, Caplan notes that the current system is flawed, as it doesn’t look out for the athlete’s best interests. Caplan claims that teams have the pressure to win, especially at the highest level, and that pressure can lead coaches to make decisions with their future in mind, not the health of their star player. If losing a game could cost a coach his job, you can bet that he’ll put pressure on the team doctor to let the player back on the field. The coach might even threaten the doctor with something along the lines of, “If you won’t give him medical clearance, we’ll find another doctor who will.”
This puts doctors between a rock and a hard place. They have taken an oath to provide the best care for their patient, but they also don’t want to lose their job. Caplan suggests that the current model is broken, and he offers a solution, at least at the highest level of competition.
His Plan
Caplan believes that professional sports teams should not be allowed to hire their own doctors. Instead, the league should hire a team physician for the franchise who would report to a head medical official.
He sites the current referee system as an example. It would seem silly if referees were employed by a professional franchise. After all, you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. So then why are team doctors, who sometimes play a larger role in the outcome of a game than the referees, on the team’s payroll, not the league’s payroll?
I don’t always agree with Art Caplan, but in this circumstance I think he’s hitting the nail right on the head. Well I don’t doubt that many physicians work very hard to take care of their players, it is important for them to be as neutral as possible.
Team owners understand this at the professional level already, as it is uncommon for local doctors to preform surgical procedures on players. Rather, the expert outside of town more often than not holds greater prestige. This may seem unusual, but I suspect that it has to do with finding a more experienced and unbiased surgeon. The league, not the team, should employ team doctors and medical advisors.
Related source: Medscape
