Survey Shows Some Physicians Are Not Always Open Or Honest With Patients.

Honesty and transparency with patients are core components of physician professionalism. However, this survey of practising physicians found that many deviate from these expectations. Although in principle most physicians supported disclosing errors to patients, nearly one-third reported that they would not fully disclose even a serious error, and a large proportion of physicians reported not disclosing financial relationships with drug or device companies to patients. These findings are similar to those found in an earlier classic study of physicians' attitudes toward professionalism.

This article presents data from a 2009 survey of 1,891 practising physicians nationwide. The survey assessed how widely physicians endorse and follow the Charter on Medical Professionalism's principles on openness and honesty in physicians' communication with patients. Overall, approximately one-third of…