Forget the blue wall of silence – that unwritten code among police officers to keep their mouths shut and take care of their own problems. What it looks like we need to worry about now is the Law of the Labcoats. Or the Stethoscopes of Silence. Or…
OK, I know, those are pretty bad (hey, you should hear my Mel Gibson impersonation). But the doctor jokes stem from a story in this morning's paper: Seems like doctors tend to cover for another when it comes to incompetence, drunks or addicts.
(And for the record, we have no such policy in journalism. We turn on each other faster than Cavaliers fans. Throw somebody under the bus? Hell, we hop in the driver's seat, run 'em over, back up, and run 'em over one more time just to make sure. We have a strict three-thump rule.)
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Anyway, a new study reveals doctors are pretty tight-lipped about troubled colleagues. Not out of any sense of loyalty, mind you, but just because they figure someone else will take care of the problem. A full third of physicians surveyed admitted they wouldn't rat out a colleague. In fact, 17 percent of them said they had "direct, personal knowledge of an impaired or incompetent physician in their workplace" but refused to do anything about it.
So, once again, I have to ask, how exactly, are consumers supposed to make informed decisions regarding their health care when they can't get prices from providers, cooperation from carriers or even a doctor with his head on straight?
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