I have come across a delema at work that I have not had experience with. I've been an employee of my hospital a long time...with the last 10 yrs as an RN. We had an incident recently where during a Cesarean Section the Physician put his hands on our Scrub Tech in anger and pushed him away from the field saying "get the **** out of my OR" after the Doctor was asked/reminded that what he was doing was "nonsterile/unsafe" The baby was saftely delivered and the patient stable before this occured. This particular doctor likes to make our OR environment "intense" and it is uncomforable and he acts like a bully. Now there are several of us (techs and RNs) that feel that if he put hands on an employee in anger once he will do it again. Risk Management was involved, but there doesn't seem to be any consequences for his actions as he still has a bullying attitude. The tech & doctor are male...could this be the reason that it isn't taken more seriously?
Oothers said, that the actions are not public and they are only between the MD and superior. Huh, that is true. Now think about it.
Who the superior is? The director who hired this MD? What was the hiring process? Enclosed process based on recommendation or personal knowledge of the individual? Who makes the "money" for the hospital? The doctor, the nurse or the CNA? Who will be more important for the hospital? Who is disposable? MD, RN, or CNA? So, yes, the actions are behind the close door. There are people who may say there were none. There will be people who may say - "oh, we did all we could."
Although, there will have to be strong line of complaints before admin will do anything about rude doctor in the sense of visible change. Now the other thing is - if it was few employees who got treated that way, the best approach is to do as they say: Follow the chain of command. Fill in the report. Send an email and inform officially the superior (short, polite and politically correct description of the event. Smart would be to copy for supervisor, HR, risk management, MD's supervisor) and it is recommended to print it out for your reference. If it is apparent that more people are having same issue, it is a repeated pattern, and no change is visible, it might be advisable to consult a lawyer. If you feel you had been emotionally injured by this treatment and administration did not protect you, some sources recommend to consult a lawyer in regards of the emotional injury reimbursement.
Call Corporate Compliance. Call your offsite number. You may remain anonymous. Also have others with knowledge of the incident do the same. Risk Management is OK in some situations others not so much depending on The Administration of your Facility. They will not bite the hand that feeds them as a Rule. Takes a Strong CEO to hold Physicians accountable and a Facility Culture that is enforced. Also I would encourage this Surgical Tech to File Charges. Do not in anyway Tolerate this.
If this happened at the hospital I worked at the dr would have been written up. It would not be tolerated. The best advice I can give is if you have a system for these write ups (we do, it's called Safety Net) then just advise everyone keep on it, if he continues to get written up or documented complaints...I'd imagine he will realize at some point that it's getting bad enough that he needs to stop. Then again, I have no idea how your faculty is run.
You could always report it to your regulatory body. That would add a layer of accountability, in case your hospital's risk mgmt/HR is in fact not handling it.
"Speaking up" is a TJC pt safety measure, and this tech was doing that.
While in this particular case, it didn't involve OP, she stated that she and other staff are now hesitant and kinda scared to work with him, which DOES make it OPs business.
I agree that she and her coworkers are affected. I'm just saying that HR and med. admin. are unlikely to share details of disciplinary actions against the md.
Specializes in NICU, PEDs, Skilled Home Care, Biologics.
I agree that the hospital would also be held liable for retaining such a person. But I have to wonder where your OR nurse manager is and why he/she isn't supporting you. It is your OR and he/she should make sure you are in a safe environment. There is power in numbers and I agree with those who said to document every occurrence. Another thought is to ask the local paper if they would do an article on the issue even if they didn't use names or facility's names. It might get the attention of the doc. and the hospital, just a thought. We did manage to have a doctor fired for bullying but he was also a bad physician. I approached one of his business partners that I had a good relationship with and asked for a meeting with him (the partner) to discuss our concerns. After presenting our evidence, the doc. was fired by his partners.
Specializes in Infection Prevention& Control, Occupational Health.
I am curious about the medical board: How likely are they to protect their own or to adequately penalize such behaviour?
This behaviour continues because these "doctors" bring in the big bucks. As long as this society's top priority remains money- rather than what is right or ethical- we will see a blind eye turned to unethical and even illegal behaviour.
It is the same reasoning behind universities having ignored and covered up evidence of rape against their (lucrative) football player(s). These people know what their society values (money) and thus know they will be protected as long as they provide it. No wonder they feel like Gods.
This was assault and battery you mean; the minute he touched her and pushed her, that was a reason to call the police. While the tech most likely wouldn't do it, had it happened to me I would have called 911 and threatened to have him charged when the police got there. This may give him pause to rethink his actions and his obvious attachment to being "intense".
Also, launching a complaint against him with the medical board would make him realize the seriousness of his actions. Hospitals have the responsibility to keep not only the patients safe, but their employees as well, no matter if the assailant has MD behind his name. And if the hospital decided to take action against me, I would remind them that social media can be used to get the word out to folks all over the world that the hospital condones this behavior and retaliates against those who report it. You have options; if you witnessed the A&B, then you can report him to the medical board yourself.
If folks do not stand up to a bully, then they can't whine when they are bullied themselves.
I was informed it takes a lot of write ups/incidents to fire a doctor because they are usually contracted and it would be a "loss of lifestyle" lawsuit on behalf of the doctor if they were suddenly fired. I would definitely report him to the medical board if the facility keeps letting this behavior continue. He is a huge liability to the patients and staff.
Haha, as I travel nurse, can I sue for 'loss of lifestyle' when a hospital cancels my contract because their budget changed?
Haha, as I travel nurse, can I sue for 'loss of lifestyle' when a hospital cancels my contract because their budget changed?
Where I live they would not fire the doctor but he would be disciplined and might have to pay a fine, and it would go on their record which is made public, which would likely be peanuts when you consider their salaries, but it does send a message I suppose.
Birthday_Girl
35 Posts
Please, please consider doing the following.
1. Document, Document, and Document some more.
I am sure as nurses, you are used to documenting medication, glucose levels, etc. Please document each and every occurrence of workplace violence.
*Look at the clock. Get the date, time, and location of incident.
*Document every individual involved. Identify the victim, the alleged perpetrator, and all witnesses.
*Write in a notebook
*Then type it up into a word document and save to your computer and a flash drive.
*Then email that document to yourself.
2. Gather as many stories of incidents. If they have not documented it then it doesn't count. Random stories of what you heard won't help you.y
3. Contact an attorney who specializes in whistleblowing laws.
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/workplaceviolence/