Survey Shows That at Least Some Physicians Are Not Always Open or Honest with Patients

This article presents data from a 2009 survey of 1,891 practicing 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 physicians did not completely agree with disclosing serious medical errors to patients, almost one-fifth did not completely agree that physicians should never tell a patient something untrue, and nearly two-fifths did not completely agree that they should disclose their financial relationships with drug and device companies to patients.