Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/430472
4 1 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E STAFFING you having difficult interactions with nurses. This appears to be a pat- tern. I wanted to bring this to your attention because I know you'll reflect on that. I've got the reports right here and I'm asking you to consider why you appear to be associated with more of these com- plaints than your colleagues." • Persistant incidents. Consider a second awareness intervention if the pattern of behavior persists, but this time have someone in a posi- tion of authority talk to the offending doc, stating, "You've had a cou- ple conversations about your behavior, yet the pattern continues. Now I'm going to help you come up with a plan of corrective action." The corrective action plan might involve physical and mental health evalu- ations, or anger management classes. • Continued incidents. If surgeons receive authority interventions and resources for help, but their behavior continues to escalate, interven- tions are needed that could involve formal disciplinary actions such as fines, suspensions or loss of credentials to operate. Physicians who fail to respond to awareness and authority interventions may be more likely to have more problems with substance abuse, mental illness or early cognitive impairment than their colleagues, so drilling down to the root cause of unchecked problematic behavior is a real opportuni- ty to help a troubled individual. In general, when bad behavior contin- ues to escalate despite a series of attempts to stop it, there could be an underlying reason for it and the person might need professional help. What about big-time surgeons? If you apply graded responses fairly and consistently, most troublesome docs will change their ways (see "A Few Bad Apples Often to Blame"), no matter how many cases they bring in or which fancy robot they work with. And it's never too late to act. Research has shown that inter-