Why Doctors Stay Mum About Mistakes Their Colleagues Make

[GoodLife]

Telling a patient about another doctor’s medical error can mean losing business or suffering retribution. Now, some physicians are looking for ways to break the code of silence.

By some estimates, medical errors are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Physicians often see the mistakes made by their peers, which puts them in a sticky ethical situation: Should they tell the patient about a mistake made by a different doctor? Too often they do not.

A new report in The New England Journal of Medicine, “Talking With Patients About Other Clinicians’ Errors,” suggests it’s a common problem.

Why Doctors Stay Mum About Mistakes Their Colleagues Make — ProPublica (https://www.propublica.org/article/why-doctors-stay-mum-about-mistakes-their-colleagues-make)

Matthew 7:5

“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”

I find it curious that Police and their unions have been singled out and accused of protecting their own, not informing on bad cops etc

I think every profession has some bad apples and incompetent people, but it's also true that almost all professions protect their own. As the above article states, Doctors don't inform on fellow Doctors as much as they should for various reasons.

Every one knows that it is extremely difficult to fire a government worker or teacher etc. Why? Because they have powerful unions that protect them with stringent contracts, lawyers, and lots of money.

Singling out Police and their unions only is hypocritical, most professions protect their own.

[GoodLife]

Strange... Many here post about how Police do not inform on the "bad apples" in the force and how unions protect them. But zero comments when a similar situation is seen in Doctors.

[golfing eagles]

Telling a patient about another doctor’s medical error can mean losing business or suffering retribution. Now, some physicians are looking for ways to break the code of silence.

By some estimates, medical errors are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Physicians often see the mistakes made by their peers, which puts them in a sticky ethical situation: Should they tell the patient about a mistake made by a different doctor? Too often they do not.

A new report in The New England Journal of Medicine, “Talking With Patients About Other Clinicians’ Errors,” suggests it’s a common problem.

Why Doctors Stay Mum About Mistakes Their Colleagues Make — ProPublica (https://www.propublica.org/article/why-doctors-stay-mum-about-mistakes-their-colleagues-make)

Matthew 7:5

“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”

I find it curious that Police and their unions have been singled out and accused of protecting their own, not informing on bad cops etc

I think every profession has some bad apples and incompetent people, but it's also true that almost all professions protect their own. As the above article states, Doctors don't inform on fellow Doctors as much as they should for various reasons.

Every one knows that it is extremely difficult to fire a government worker or teacher etc. Why? Because they have powerful unions that protect them with stringent contracts, lawyers, and lots of money.

Singling out Police and their unions only is hypocritical, most professions protect their own.


False assumption. There is no "code of silence" among physicians. In my experience, doctors tend to have large egos and generally can't wait to jump in and talk about an error committed by another physician, especially if he/she is at a different hospital or a different town.

Second false assumption---the Hopkins study that suggested over 200,000 Americans die of medical "mistakes" each year. Yes, doctors make mistakes, and yes, 10% of the doctors make 90% of the mistakes, and yes, there should be a way to weed them out. However, and I think I discussed this at length previously, these people are dying WITH mistakes, not OF them. Example---I order a patient to receive tylenol at 6 PM. The nurse has to give this dose between 5:30 and 6:30, otherwise it is considered a "mistake". She gives it at 6:31 and the patient dies 12 days later of their underlying stage 4 lung cancer. This is counted in the statistics. It was a meaningless "error" , and not even one committed by the physician, and yet it counted. Before anyone wants to challenge this assertion, I can say I served over 20 years as chairman of the quality assurance committee, chief of staff, and on the board of directors of my hospital, and these were EXACTLY the types of "errors" we were REQUIRED to report to the state health department. Over 95% of these had NO IMPACT on patient care or outcome, and very few resulted in death. So before anyone starts quoting that bogus 200,000 number, start moving the decimal point to the left.

[retiredguy123]

A lot of people are demanding that the police have a body video camera to record everything they do. So, why isn't there a video camera in the hospital operating room to record all surgeries?

[golfing eagles]

A lot of people are demanding that the police have a body video camera to record everything they do. So, why isn't there a video camera in the hospital operating room to record all surgeries?

Not your best idea ever. Imagine filming a woman having breast or vaginal surgery, or a man undergoing prostate surgery. Patients in an operating room have an expectation of privacy, just as you do in your own home. When you have an interaction with police, it's generally out in the public with no expectation of privacy.

[billethkid]

Society continues to move further and further away from trust and fundamental competency.

Technology along with the lowering the bar for qualifications along with too many lawyers topped off by a selective enforcement code of justice = opportunity for ANYBODY who would call "foul" and exploit personal gain.

[GoodLife]

False assumption. There is no "code of silence" among physicians. In my experience, doctors tend to have large egos and generally can't wait to jump in and talk about an error committed by another physician, especially if he/she is at a different hospital or a different town.

Second false assumption---the Hopkins study that suggested over 200,000 Americans die of medical "mistakes" each year. Yes, doctors make mistakes, and yes, 10% of the doctors make 90% of the mistakes, and yes, there should be a way to weed them out.

The New England Journal of Medicine, ProPublica, and Stat News seem to agree that Doctors tend to have a problem disclosing their own and other Doctors errors. Your own experience is anecdotal.

Do all Doctors do this? Of course not. I'm just pointing out that many professions tend to protect their own and point out the hypocrisy of those that attack the Police and their unions only.

[Kahuna32162]

Again, OP just throws something out there with no basis in fact. I have a sister in law like this, she'll walk into a family gathering and drop a comment bomb meant to rile everyone up, the just sits back to watch the fireworks.

[GoodLife]

Again, OP just throws something out there with no basis in fact. I have a sister in law like this, she'll walk into a family gathering and drop a comment bomb meant to rile everyone up, the just sits back to watch the fireworks.

ProPublica & New England Journal of Medicine articles have no basis in fact? :ohdear:

[golfing eagles]

ProPublica & New England Journal of Medicine articles have no basis in fact? :ohdear:

Of course they do, but while I did not read the article you cited, I have to believe that it is an editorial/commentary piece, not original research/study. This means it is a collection of anecdotes just like the one I told, no more and no less valid.