Many Doctors Admit Fail to Report Incompetence, Errors of Colleagues: Study
Dec 10th, 2007 • Posted in: NewsAbout half have witnessed malfeasance but not turned in the perpetrators; their results stand in contrast to the fact that almost all doctors concede they ’should’ blow the whistle.
BOSTON
More than half of the doctors who responded to a recent survey on professional ethics said they do not report impaired or incompetent colleagues or blow the whistle on serious medical errors.
The results, published last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, also show that virtually all doctors believe they should report such misbehavior, even though many of them fail to follow through, according to a summary of the study in the Boston Globe.
CBS News reports that the reason for the disconnect is unclear, but apparently is related to fear of retaliation or lawsuits.
The study surveyed 3,504 practicing physicians between November 2003 and June 2004, and received responses from 1,662.
Ninety-six percent of responding physicians agreed that doctors should always report impaired or incompetent colleagues, but only 55 percent of those with direct personal knowledge of impairment or incompetence actually reported it. Ninety-three percent said they should alert authorities to serious medical error, but only 54 percent who had witnessed such error actually followed through, according to a breakdown of the results in U.S. News & World Report.
David Blumenthal, senior author of the study, told USA Today that it’s clear that “human beings always fall short of their aspirations,” but noted that it was encouraging that they at least acknowledged “what they ought to be doing.”
Sources: USA Today, Dec. 4 — Boston Globe, Dec. 4 — Washington Post, Dec. 4 — CBS News, Dec. 4 — U.S. News & World Report, Dec. 3 — USA Today, Dec. 3 — Reuters, Dec. 3.
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