Impaired Physicians

In a recently published article " Physicians reluctant to report impaired colleagues, study says,"(amednews.com) the author summarizes the findings of a national survey of 2,000 physicians. The survey results were published in the July 14th edition of JAMA " Physicians' Perceptions, Preparedness for Reporting, and Experiences Related to Impaired and Incompetent Colleagues."
Unfortunately, the key findings are troubling:

* Just 64% of physicians completely agreed that they had an obligation to report all impaired or incompetent doctors. The rest of the physicians either "somewhat agreed" that they were obliged to report problem colleagues or disagreed that they had such a responsibility.
* The most common reason for not reporting incompetent or impaired colleagues was physicians "thought someone else was taking care of the problem," the study said. Some physicians said reporting would be fruitless, while 12% feared retribution.

Only 17% of respondents had direct knowledge of an impaired or incompetent physician. The question remains if this is due to ignorance or choice.
What can we do? Doctors need to be better educated on how to report problem colleagues and their ethical responsibility to do so. Those who do report should be kept in the loop on how a colleague's case is progressing, and that the reporting process should be confidential.
Looking forward to your comments.
Yours
Bernd

Barriers to Reporting:

Two-thirds of physicians with direct knowledge of an impaired or incompetent physician colleague reported them to a medical board, hospital, clinic, professional society or other body. Of doctors who didn't report:

19% thought someone else was taking care of the problem.

15% believed nothing would happen as a result of the report.

12% feared retribution.

10% believed it was not their responsibility.

9% believed the person would be excessively punished.

8% did not know how to report.

8% believed it easily could happen to them.

Note: respondents could answer "yes" to more than one reason.

Source: "Physicians' Perceptions, Preparedness for Reporting, and Experiences Related to Impaired and Incompetent Colleagues," Journal of the American Medical Association, July 14 (jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/304/2/187/)