Do you find this to be unbelievable?

6 days ago the results of a study were released:
Findings: Doctors are not always honest with patients.
"The findings come from a 2009 survey of more
than 1,800 physicians nationwide to see if they
agree with and follow certain standards medical
professionalism issued in 2002. Among the
voluntary standards are that doctors should be
open and honest about all aspects of patient care,
and promptly disclose any mistakes.
A third of those surveyed didn't completely agree
that doctors should 'fess up about mistakes.
That's even though a growing number of medical
centers are adopting policies that tell doctors to
say "I'm sorry" up front, in part because studies
have found patients less likely to sue when that
happens.
Not revealing a mistake is "just inexcusable," said
Dr. Arthur Caplan, a prominent medical ethicist at
the University of Pennsylvania. Beyond decency,
"your care now has to be different because of
what happened."
The vast majority of those surveyed agreed that
physicians should fully inform patients of the
risks, not just the benefits, of treatment options
and never tell a patient something that isn't true
— even though some admitted they hadn't
followed that advice at least on rare occasions in
the past year.
Perhaps least surprising is that doctors give overly
positive prognoses. It's hard to deliver bad news,
especially when a patient has run out of options,
and until recently doctors have had little training
in how to do so. But Iezzoni said patients with the
worst outlook especially deserve to know, so they
can get their affairs in order, and patient studies
have found most want to know.
What else might doctors not tell? There are
shades of gray, said Caplan, the ethicist. For
example, he's heard doctors agonize over what to
tell parents about a very premature baby's
chances, knowing the odds are really bad but also
knowing they've seen miracles.
Doctors prescribe placebos sometimes, and telling
the patient could negate chances of the fake
treatment helping, he noted. Sometimes they
exaggerate a health finding to shock the patient
into shaping up.
And sometimes it's a matter of dribbling out a
hard truth to give patients a chance to adjust,
Caplan said: "OK, this looks serious but we're
going to order some more tests," when the doctor
already knows just how grim things are.
Withholding the full story is getting harder,
though, Iezzoni said. Not only do more patients
Google their conditions so they know what to ask,
but some doctors who have embraced electronic
medical records allow patients to log in and check
their own test results."

Boston.com

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