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Joint Commission cracks down on disruptive clinicians

Quality Improvement Monitor, August 22, 2008

Dictatorial docs who demean, bully, or otherwise behave badly may want to get in touch with their kinder, gentler side.

Beginning January 1, 2009, new standards by The Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) will require hospitals to have protocols to put cantankerous clinicians in their place -- or else. In July, the accreditor issued a Sentinel Event Alert warning that disruptive behavior by physicians -- or any clinicians, for that matter -- pose a threat to patient safety.

The alert came as welcome news, says Troy Lair, CEO of the Compliance Doctor in Los Angeles.

“As a former chief nursing officer, I became acquainted with the physicians who repeatedly would be rude toward me and my staff, especially those physicians that provided the hospital with the higher number of admissions,” Lair says. “These docs were the absolute worst in their behaviors, knowing the administration of the hospital would not act upon disciplinary action in fear of [their] admissions going to the local competing hospital.”

Access the full story in the August issue of Quality Improvement Report; access is free for subscribers, nonsubscribers can purchase a copy of the story for $10.

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