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No place in medicine for bad behavior

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Our favorite characters on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ may be able to get away with outrageous behavior on the job, but in real life medical authorities are saying enough. The Joint Commission, an agency that evaluates and accredits more than 15,000 healthcare organizations nationwide, issued a bulletin Wednesday saying that rude, hostile and disruptive behavior among doctors, nurses, pharmacists, therapists, support staff and administrators will no longer be tolerated.

Intimidating and disruptive behavior in healthcare settings is a serious problem that undermines patient safety, the report said. The commission will enforce new standards requiring healthcare organizations to create a code of conduct and a formal plan for managing bad behavior. The report noted that healthcare professionals are reluctant to take action against a misbehaving colleague. A survey found that about 40% of clinicians have kept quiet or remained passive when witnessing bad behavior. The Joint Commission defined disruptive behavior as verbal outbursts, physical threats, refusal to perform assigned tasks, uncooperative attitudes, condescending language or voice intonation, impatience with questions and failure to return phone calls or pages.

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Granted, healthcare settings are often stressful places, says the vice president of the Joint Commission Peter B. Angood. Healthcare providers work under challenging conditions and patients’ emotions often run high. But that’s no excuse for unprofessional behavior, he said. Though this advisory comes too late for the former staff of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, there’s hope for others. But, said Angood: ‘It’s going to take a lot of work to drive this disruptive and intimidating behavior out of healthcare.’

-- Shari Roan

Actress Sandra Oh portrays Dr. Cristina Yang on the TV series ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’

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