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Doctors stew over personality tests as insurer ties results to rates

Researchers who have studied physician personality traits want to see their work used to help physicians, not penalize them.

By Tanya Albert, amednews staff. Oct. 27, 2003.

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In what experts say could be a harbinger of things to come, at least one liability insurer is now asking doctors to complete a three-page communication skills assessment as a condition of policy renewal.

"Tranquil," "meticulous," "sympathetic," "opinionated," "devoted," "agreeable," "tense" and "perfectionist" are among the 81 word choices physicians contemplate when asked to describe how other people would describe them. Next, physicians are asked to check the words that they would use to describe themselves.

Doctors also are being asked to respond to what they believe is appropriate job behavior to be successful. For example, is it "unimportant, important or critical" to "being competitive, winning"? They are asked to check off their "ideal supervisor or workplace" by answering whether they "need, like or dislike" a "workplace governed by rules, tradition, protocol" or whether "the boss is a hands-off manager, a resource."

Some studies have shown that communication skills can play a part in predicting the odds of a physician getting sued for medical malpractice. Now Michigan-based American Physicians Assurance Corp. is believed to be the first that is trying to gather that information as part of its underwriting process.

But experts say they wouldn't be surprised to see more insurers turn to alternatives like this in the current tough medical liability market. Physicians already have seen rates increase, underwriting criteria tighten and numerous medical liability carriers flee the market.