Ben Meyerink, MD
October 1, 2026
When one thinks of the main functions of the South Dakota State Medical Association, tasks like testifying on bills in Pierre and meeting with legislators probably come to mind. While those are certainly roles we play, our organization continues to expand and serve our physician members in other ways that I feel many are not aware of. One of the most important arms of our group is leading and supporting the South Dakota Physician Wellbeing Program (PWBP).
When we started the PWBP, I am not sure any of us had any idea just how critical or heavily utilized it would be. Physician burnout is actually trending slightly downward on recent studies but still affects over 40% of physicians at any given time . We must admit that many of us as physicians struggle with reaching out for help and putting ourselves before our patients and our occupations. Thankfully, a large number of South Dakota physicians have overcome this stigma and reached out to the PWBP since its initiation a few years ago. In fact, we currently have over 30 physicians per month consistently enrolled in our program and over 200 have now taken part since its inception. A number that have been enrolled have told us that if it was not for this program, they would not have been able to continue to practice. More importantly, it benefited and rescued their personal lives as well.
One major concern many physicians have with getting help is confidentiality and licensure. This program is completely confidential and we have an outside team that does all of the counseling and treatment. Even our SDSMA board has no idea who is or is not taking part in it. I appreciate that many of our health systems have similar programs but our PWBP allows physicians to go somewhere entirely separate from their workplace. This also has no bearing on one’s licensure as the SDSMA worked hard a few years back to help change the requirements for disclosure of mental health on medical licensing. Lastly, these services are minimal cost thanks to our supporters which include COPIC, Monument Health, Sanford Health, and Wellmark.
The SDSMA will keep advocating for physician wellbeing and continue to seek out other avenues to support our members. We feel this is an important piece of our mission and your membership. I look at the PWBP the way I do many things in life, I hope all of us never need it but as physicians, we are human beings with real lives outside of our demanding careers. It is inevitable that we all will need these types of support systems at some point. The SDSMA is here to provide that support to help you be your best in serving your patients, families, and communities.
