First do no harm
A doctor’s mantra is “First, do no harm,” but when it comes to those who fail to honor this promise the medical establishment comes back with, “Thou shalt not speak ill of thy fellow physician.” Doctor’s feel, “There but for the grace of God go I. Do I want to take away this guy’s livelihood?” according to Arthur Levin of the Center for Medical Consumers. A recent survey of 1,600 physicians by Columbia University’s Institute on Medicine as a Profession revealed that 46 percent of the doctors surveyed had witnessed “serious” medical errors performed by their colleagues and did not report them. A whopping 93 percent knew they should have. Compounding the issue is that only 16 states make available malpractice payouts made by doctors on public websites for consumer use. Dr.
Sidney Wolfe of the non-profit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said, “There isn't an adequate system to catch these doctors after they've done one or two things, as opposed to just letting them go on and on. ” Even after sanctions made against an errant doctor are made, they usually keep practicing. In an effort to limit bad doctors from continuing to practice steps have been suggested. One step provided would be for doctors to admit fault and
apologize because recent research showed remorse could fend off a medical malpractice suit. Research also shows that doctors who had been disciplined by their state medical boards had a threefold increase in unprofessional behavior as medical students. “The tradition of professionalism must begin in medical school,” says study author Dr. Maxine Papadakis, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Susan Dorr Goold believes that a doctor’s ethics education needs to continue even after medical school. These steps may curtail some bad doctors from surfacing and seeking to practice medicine, but remember the joke, what do you call a medical student who graduated last in his class? . . .Doctor.
