While virtually all doctors (96%) agree that they should report incompetent colleagues, only 45% of them have ever done so. This according to a recently published study by Dr David Blumenthal from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Institute for Health Policy. Results were based on responses from 1,662 family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, anesthesiology, and cardiology physicians between November 2003 and June 2004.

Another telling bit of information was that about one third of respondents said they would order unneeded MRI for back pain if a patient asked for it. See recent blog on the cost of unnecessary tests