A new study finds that U.S. physicians overwhelmingly believe that incompetence and mistakes among peers should be reported. However, when face to face with these problems, nearly one-half fail to do just that, which can have harmful and even fatal consequences.
A survey of more than 1,600 physicians by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, published in the Dec. 4 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, shows that 45 percent of those surveyed with direct knowledge of impaired or incompetent colleagues in their practice did not always report them. Forty-six percent of physicians who knew of a serious medical error did not report it to authorities at least once, says the report, "Professionalism Among Physicians: Results of a National Survey."
"There is a measurable disconnect between what physicians say they think is the right thing to do and what they actually do," says lead author Eric Campbell, PhD, associate professor at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Institute for Health Policy and Harvard Medical School. "This raises serious questions about the ability of the medical profession to regulate itself."
The researchers surveyed 1,662 physicians from six specialties (cardiology, anesthesiology, family practice, surgery, internal medicine, and pediatrics) between November 2003 and June 2004. They reported other areas where individual physician behavior is at odds with what they believe is best for patients and the profession, including ordering unnecessary medical tests, managing conflicts of interest, and informing patients about conflicts of interest. Access the chartbook.
