The Boston Globe exposes healthcare “road rage”:
North Shore is part of an emerging effort to crack down on what some call healthcare road rage. The push is inspired by a growing body of research suggesting that swearing, yelling, and throwing objects are not just rude and offensive to co-workers, but hurt patients by increasing the likelihood of medical errors.
Hospitals that discipline their surgeons are more the exception than the rule.
Surgeons are the undisputed revenue generators of hospitals. As long as procedures continue to be disproportionally rewarded financially, they simply can move to any number of financially struggling hospitals that would welcome them with open arms.
While North Shore Medical Center is to be applauded by trying to rein in surgeon behavior, don’t expect surgeons to change their behavior much in general.
They hold all the cards.
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The obvious point is that noone will check bad behaviour unless the behaviour becomes a liability. And those cranky, high-strung surgeons won’t have much incentive to check themselves unless their behaviour is a serious liability to their income and reputations.
Some backbone on the part of institutions that might suffer in various ways from unprofessional tempers would be nice. Since that isn’t about to happen, you have to understand the big, unpredicable whammy of litigation by abused employees and injured patients is the only thing that eventually brings the banhammer down.
So yay, litigation. When such people are not worth the income stream they provide, they are removed.
During my circulating days, I’ll never forget having a SCALPEL thrown at me by a psychotic surgeon. Funny thing is, I don’t even remember why, but it doesn’t matter. What I do remember is going to the Chief of Surgery and demanding a meeting with him and the surgeon.
I got an apology. Which was nice. But he continued to throw stuff at nurses.
I also had a scalpel (a bloody one at that!) thrown at me as a med student. Everyone knew that this behavior happened and nobody ever did anything about it. One student who had spoken up in years prior was rumored to have failed her surgery clerkship, which was enough to keep anyone from saying anything about it. I really didn’t have the energy anyway; working Q3 overnight without getting to go home post-call will do that to you.
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