USA: Docs Don't Always Do Right Thing, Survey Finds

WASHINGTON (The Seattle Times — Associated Press), December 4, 2007: Do doctors rat out incompetent colleagues? A new survey suggests nearly half don't — showing some disconnects between what doctors say is the right thing to do, and what they actually do. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital mailed a survey to more than 3,000 doctors. About half answered. More than 90 percent of those surveyed said physicians should always report an impaired or incompetent colleague, or when they witness a significant medical mistake, to the proper authorities. But 45 percent said they hadn't always done so, researchers reported Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Other findings: • A third of surveyed doctors said they would order an unnecessary and expensive MRI scan just to get rid of a complaining patient. • A quarter said they would refer patients to an imaging center in which they had a financial interest without revealing the conflict of interest, which could violate certain laws. • Two-thirds of the doctors said they accepted patients who are unable to pay, and three-fourths said they had volunteered without pay at least once in the past three years. Overall, 28 percent of the responding doctors' patients were uninsured or on Medicaid. Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company