Patients in Ohio and elsewhere want to be able to trust their doctors. Whether it is a life or death procedure or just a routine checkup, patients want to feel that their doctor has the patient's best interest in mind. However, this is not always the case. When things go wrong it appears that the doctor often thinks of themselves first.

Reportedly, 34 percent of doctors feel that they should not inform patients when a serious medical error occurs. Furthermore, almost 20 percent of doctors, that is one out of every five, report that they refrained from informing a patient of a serious medical error because the doctor feared a medical malpractice case.

According to this new survey regarding doctors and honesty, put forth by Health Affairs, doctors aren't as honest as residents in Ohio may assume them to be. The survey was conducted on a population of 2,000 doctors pooled from across the nation and the conclusions are rather alarming and another reminder that often patients need to be their own advocate.

Medical malpractice can occur when negligence on the part of a doctor or other medical professional, such as a nurse, results in damage to a patient. Whether it is a delay of diagnosis, a misdiagnosis, a surgical error, a medication error or any number of other medical errors, compensation could be in order.

Furthermore, it is not just the patient directly affected that could be entitled to compensation. In the case of wrongful deaths due to medical errors, the family of the decedent could be entitled to compensation for the damages.

Source: abc News, "Your Doctor May Be Keeping Secrets," April 8, 2012