Doctors negligence - doctors feel unprepared to report incompetent colleagues
Over a third of US doctors who responded to a survey did not agree it was their responsibility to report colleagues who were incompetent or impaired, for instance due to substance abuse or a mental health disorder according to findings published on 14 July in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Doctor negligence
The survey also revealed that many doctors felt unprepared to deal with or report impaired or incompetent colleagues.
Studies show that compared to the number expected, far fewer reports of incompetence among doctors actually occur, in spite of increasing attention in the media and professional circles, and the fact many states and professional bodies like the American Medical Association require that health professionals report colleagues whose ability to practise is impaired.
The survey covered doctors in anesthesiology, cardiology, family practice, general surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics and psychiatry. From 2,938 eligible US doctors invited to complete the survey, 1,891 responded (64.4%).
The survey asked respondents to rate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statement: "Physicians should report all instances of significantly impaired or incompetent colleagues." It also asked them to say how prepared they felt to deal with such a situation and whether they had had direct knowledge of an impaired or incompetent colleague in the past three years. If they answered yes to having direct knowledge of such a case or cases, the survey then asked them to say whether they had reported the most recent case, and if they had failed to report any cases within the last three years, what reasons did they have.
Adrian Desmond, leading medical negligence lawyer from Reading-based law firm Boyes Turner says: "There is no reason to believe that doctors in the UK approach this difficult issue with any greater candour. Sadly this is one of the reasons why rates of injury caused by medical error continue at such a high level. In a House of Commons review published last July for example a review of medical notes suggested that as many as 10% of patients admitted to hospital suffer some form of harm, much of which is avoidable."
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