Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess public perceptions of alcohol use by physicians on duty.
Methods: A random telephone survey of 408 adults in one Tennessee county was used.
Results: Only 1% of the respondents reported that they suspected that a physician with whom they were in professional contact during the last year had used alcohol. Only 7% reported encountering physicians whom they suspected of having used alcohol while on duty. When queried about their beliefs, 98% disagreed that social drinking is acceptable while on duty, 92% believed that physicians should not have even a single drink while on duty, and 91% believed that doctors have an obligation to inform patients that they have consumed an alcoholic beverage before advising or treating them.
Conclusions: Patients rarely suspect that physicians use alcohol while on duty and are highly intolerant of this practice. Physicians can only gain in prestige and public confidence by adding categoric proscriptions about alcohol use on duty to their ethical codes.