JACKSON, Miss. -- Dr. Anthony Cloy discovered his passion for treating patients when he took a part-time job at a hospital lab in college. Curious about the “patient behind the numbers,” he found himself volunteering to hand-deliver test results to the emergency room or ICU to put faces with names. “I realized I just wanted to be someone's doctor,” he says, which led him to Family Medicine. “For me, when I was in that exam room with my patient having a face-to-face encounter, I was in my happy spot.”
But over time, alcohol addiction threatened his license to practice. He asked for help.
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Dr. Cloy underwent treatment for substance abuse and completed a five-year probation. He returned to his work with patients, and eventually began teaching young medical students at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. Most recently, however, he works as a doctor to fellow doctors – like himself. “It was God talking to me, that ‘this is what you need to do in this chapter of your life,’ to give back to that program that basically saved my career.”
He is currently the Medical Director for the Mississippi Physicians Health Program, which guides healthcare professionals facing mental illness or addiction. Doctors are “safety-sensitive workers” which makes it extraordinarily difficult for them to admit they have a problem. “It can be very daunting.” Doctors are human too, he says and “the goal, obviously, is to keep folks working.”
In charge of intakes for MPHP, Dr. Cloy regularly shares the story of his own addiction recovery and reinstatement more than 12 years ago.
“I like to point out to people that, yes it can get that bad – you think ‘I'll never drink at work or I'll never drink on call’ but if the disease progresses, you probably will.” He then shares that MPHP has a strong success rate, with internal statistics showing most medical pros who complete the program are very likely to continue their sobriety. “That's been a nice way of giving back because I went through that myself.”
Since his return to medicine, Dr. Cloy has also volunteered his expertise to serve his community in other crucial ways. He donates his time and skill to the Jackson Free Clinic, which provides free healthcare to people who are homeless or who cannot afford insurance. He has also served on various boards including for MS HeARTs Against AIDS and leads overseas missions to Honduras with the Salt and Light Ministry Foundation.
Dr. Cloy has also dabbled in acting. Volunteering not at as singer, but as an on-stage extra in operas, called a “super.” His super roles have included butler and priest and “even the town drunk,” he laughs. “That was my favorite – ‘I said I think I got that one, I’ve been there.’”
In all that he does, faith plays a central role. “Sometimes you just gotta sit down and listen to what God is telling you,” he urges. “Probably any of us that go through rigorous scientific training perhaps push the spiritual to the back burner -- but I think life experience tells us it’s quite obvious if people would just sit back and look and listen to what the Higher Plan is – that’s what I’ve tried to learn to do.”
