Well Physician California (WPCA) is committed to protecting the confidentiality and security of the responses you provide to the California Physician Wellness Survey. In addition to protections outlined in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, our current practices to protect your responses include, but are not limited to, the following:

• We administer the survey through a secure survey platform.
• We store submitted responses on a password-protected computer system with limited access, located within a secured facility.
• Any personally identifiable data associated with your Well Physician California Survey will be accessible only to WPCA representatives and IT personnel.

WPCA is an initiative of the California Medical Association (CMA). No treatment is provided and no patient-physician relationship is created in taking this survey. If you are in crisis, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, or in the case of an emergency, call 911. CMA and WPCA are not covered entities and the responses gathered are not protected by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. CMA and WPCA will adhere to applicable laws and policies to protect the confidentiality of your responses.

The online survey identifies you by your e-mail address, which will be used to confidentially link your responses across time. Our surveys may collect information regarding age, gender, relationship status, department/specialty, training status, race/ethnicity, practice environment, experience at work, work related stress and burnout, sleep, and workload.  By completing our survey, you agree that your responses may be gathered and stored in our database.  Your personally identifiable information will not be shared with anyone outside of WPCA. Your responses will become part of a secure database that is maintained by WPCA. This database will be used by WPCA for program evaluation.

Your responses will be used primarily for the purpose of allowing Well Physician California and industry partners to evaluate and recommend data-driven actions to improve physician health, professional fulfillment and quality of care. Responses to demographic and department/specialty will be used to compare work/life wellness and risks of different groups and to identify what health promotion programming will be most effective for different physician groups. Data collected from the online survey may be used for the following purposes, as permitted or required by law, including:

• To provide norms against which sub-groups can be compared;
• To suggest recommendations for future physician health promotion programming;
• To identify the work/life wellness and risks of different physician groups and compare these risks and wellness variables with national data;
• To apply for, and/or justify, funding for programs that will help promote wellness among physicians and families that participate in those programs;
• To investigate the relationship among variables of physicians' work/life wellness, lifestyle behaviors, knowledge, attitudes, mental and physical well-being, and quality of care metrics; and
• Research projects approved or deemed exempt by a qualified Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Your de-identified survey responses will be combined with the responses of others, as well as data collected from other sources, and subjected to data analysis and reporting to groups and individuals, which may include your health care organization or certain other organizations (e.g., health plans), and potentially for research and publication purposes (with IRB approval or exemption).  Data released for research and reporting will first be de-identified by removing any personal identifying information including combinations of demographic or organization specific information that are unique to any group of fewer than five individuals. Although we have no intention of doing so, it may be possible to identify you via your responses to specific questions. You may refrain from answering any questions you feel uncomfortable answering. Whether or not you participated in the survey will not be shared.

The WPCA Survey Confidentiality Statement will be updated periodically.