The Disruptive Physician

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

was looking up medical legal cases came across personal website from a md, jd --great info on what a medical board should be doing re these doctors.

issue

some hospital staffs have at least one physician that is "disruptive" in the smooth running of the hospital or medical staff. what is meant by disruptive and how is the situation best handled?

repeated acts of uncontrolled anger as manifested by yelling or other verbal abuse towards patients, visitors, hospital personnel, other physicians or any one act of physical abuse toward any person should never be tolerated. this type of incident would be the underlying tenet of the disruptive physician, their inability to get along with others as a cause for deteriorating patient care. if a nurse is afraid to call a physician for fear of being verbally castigated and a potential for harm to the patient results, this is a disruptive act or verbal harassment. the main points above are the repeated verbal acts or one single physical act and the causation element of decreased quality of care. both must be present.

treatment

the medical executive committee needs to establish a well thought out policy for dealing with the disruptive physician or verbal harasser. the policy should be disseminated to the entire medical staff for their approval via an insertion into the medical staff bylaws or rules and regulations. it should also be distributed to all hospital employees. this policy should include time lines for investigation and the handling of the disruptive act. once a policy is in place, it must be followed. do not back down if the physician threatens to sue for antitrust, defamation or other actions....

http://www.medicalaw.net/disruptive_physician.htm

[Sherwood]

We have a surgeon on staff who was infamous for his angry outbursts, his short temper and his extremely childish tantrums. It took two tries but now he no longer slams charts on the desks, yells or shakes his fists while gritting his teeth.

A charge nurse approached him after one of theses outbursts and told him he was creating a threatening and hostile environment, she feared for her safety and the safety of those around him. He was speechless and stomped out of the unit. The charge nurse then wrote an unprofessional activity report and hand delivered it to the appropriate person.

This physician was counseled that very day, he apologized (reluctantly I am sure) he was quite docile for a while. He later let it be known that he was mandated to attend anger management classes or be removed from the medical staff. He still grumbles and grits his teeth once in a while but he is no longer creating a hostile environment.

I am glad this charge nurse took a stand for her staff and thankfully our administration handled this problem swiftly. No one should tolerate this kind of behavior from anyone.

[SueBee RN-BSN]

Some doctors are unhappy with their choice of profession. All that schooling, and look at him. I feel sorry for this doctor, but patients, nurses and others around him have got to be protected from harm. Sounds like the right thing was done here, so far.