Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital surveyed 1500 doctors, asking whether or not they reported incompetent colleagues. 90% said that they should always report incompetent doctors or serious medical mistakes, but 45% said that hadn't always done so.

Some more findings from the AP:

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 last three years. Overall, 28 percent of the responding doctors' patients were uninsured or on Medicaid.

Fewer than 1 percent said they had lied to patients, and 3 percent reported withholding information from patients or family that those people should have known. Eleven percent reported breaching patient confidentiality.

Docs Don't Always Turn in Bad Colleagues [AP]
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