This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

George D. Lundberg, MD

JAMA. 1991;265(21):2859.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The essence of professionalism is self-governance. Central to self-governance is self-criticism.¹ The public trusts medical professionals to be honest with themselves, with each other, and with them. Honesty is exemplified in quality assurance activities within organizations. These are based on the recognition of problem areas, identification of errors when they occur, and institution of corrective actions. The responsible action taken by the faculty and staff at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Mass, and reported elsewhere in this issue in the article by Bedell and colleagues² should be lauded and considered a model for other institutions interested in ensuring quality.

The editors of THE JOURNAL have chosen to publish a number of challenging articles of this nature. For example, the April 24, 1991, JAMA included two research papers on the frequency of substance abuse among resident physicians and medical students^3,4 and a remarkably candid Special Communication, "Do . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Scientific Publications Group, American Medical Association, 515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610 (Dr Lundberg).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?