Study: Many American doctors don't blow whistle on addicted, incompetent colleagues
As a medical malpractice attorney I am astonished by the following Chicago Tribune story. A shocking number of doctors are aware that their colleagues are not safely practicing due to drug and alcohol addictions but keep it to themselves.
A new survey “finds that many American physicians fail to report troubled colleagues to authorities, believing that someone else will take care of it, that nothing will happen if they act or that they could be targeted for retribution.” (Chicago Tribune, Carla K. Johnson, 7/13). The results are based on a 2009 survey of 1,891 practicing physicians in the United States.
A mind blowing 17 percent of the doctors surveyed had direct, personal knowledge of an impaired or incompetent physician in their workplaces. A third of those doctors had not reported their knowledge to either the hospital board or the medical board of the state, leaving many dangerous physicians still practicing.
The American Medical Association and other professional groups say “doctors have an ethical obligation to make such reports. And many states require doctors to tell authorities about colleagues who endanger patients because of alcoholism, drug abuse or mental illness.” Despite ethical and statutory requirements, far too many incidents go unreported.
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