Supporting Staff Mental Health at UW Medicine
Jun 6, 2025
Questions about mental health on medical credentialing forms can discourage clinicians from seeking mental health treatment. UW Medicine has been recognized as a 2025 “Wellbeing First Champion” for removing intrusive and stigmatizing language about mental health care and treatment from its credentialing and professional review applications. ALL IN: Wellbeing First for Healthcare, is the coalition which recognized the UW. Members are healthcare organizations dedicated to well-being in the workplace. Resources include a toolkit to remove barriers to mental health care for health workers. In the past, hospitals and medical licensure bodies routinely required healthcare workers to reveal whether they had a history of a mental-health or substance-use disorder, even if the disorders were not current and did not affect their ability to provide care. The goal of such requirements was to protect patients from impaired healthcare providers, but there was little evidence that the requirements were effective, said Dr. Brian Johnston, professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He oversees medical credentialing at Harborview Medical Center. UW Medicine began its review in 2024. The audit prompted the health system’s Office of Medical Staff Affairs to revise the questions on forms used in credentialing and reviews. The language in its credentialing questions, for example, was changed from a focus on past problems to current problems that might affect care.
Questions about mental health on medical credentialing forms can discourage clinicians from seeking mental health treatment. UW Medicine has been recognized as a 2025 “Wellbeing First Champion” for removing intrusive and stigmatizing language about mental health care and treatment from its credentialing and professional review applications. ALL IN: Wellbeing First for Healthcare, is the coalition which recognized the UW. Members are healthcare organizations dedicated to well-being in the workplace. Resources include a toolkit to remove barriers to mental health care for health workers. In the past, hospitals and medical licensure bodies routinely required healthcare workers to reveal whether they had a history of a mental-health or substance-use disorder, even if the disorders were not current and did not affect their ability to provide care. The goal of such requirements was to protect patients from impaired healthcare providers, but there was little evidence that the requirements were effective, said Dr. Brian Johnston, professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He oversees medical credentialing at Harborview Medical Center. UW Medicine began its review in 2024. The audit prompted the health system’s Office of Medical Staff Affairs to revise the questions on forms used in credentialing and reviews. The language in its credentialing questions, for example, was changed from a focus on past problems to current problems that might affect care.