Intimidating & Disruptive Professionals Are Destructive & Costly

The Phenomenon Defined

The Joint Commission wisely named its July 9, 2008 Issue 40 Sentinel Event Alert "Behaviors that undermine a culture of safety." It is abundantly clear that through the undermining of employee safety, disruptive individuals threaten patient safety, the core mission of every JCAHO-accredited hospital or organization.

In response to this safety threat, effective January 1, 2009, The Joint Commission promulgated a new Leadership Standard (LD.03.01.01) to address intimidating, disruptive and inappropriate behaviors. JCAHO cited research demonstrating that negative interpersonal conduct by physicians and others can lead to medical errors, preventable adverse patient outcomes, poor patient satisfaction, increased cost of care, increased malpractice risk, and turnover among professionals who have to deal with the abusive actors.

The phenomenon of Workplace Bullying most accurately describes the set of overt actions that JCAHO is proactively addressing in this new leadership standard. Melodramatic screaming tirades and physical threats, as well as the covert, more easily disguised, destructive actions, such as failing to cooperate with others when necessary or abusing positions of authority are all tactics that intimidators employ. These forms of misconduct comprise workplace bullying. The Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) defines bullying as the repeated mistreatment of an individual by one person or by a group manifested as either: 1) verbal abuse, or; 2) conduct that is threatening, intimidating or humiliating, or; 3) interference with, or sabotage of, the work of others, or; 4) some combination of the three behavioral categories.

Intimidating disruptive individuals are recognizable workplace aggressors, bullies by another name. In healthcare, perpetrators are not only physicians, but other professionals, administrators, and non-physician staff. In turn, each group is also targeted by perpetrators. JCAHO realizes that the problem can be organization-wide, resulting in a culture or workplace climate made toxic by destructive perpetrators. Stopping it requires deliberate employer action. This is the thrust of JCAHO's Sentinel Event Alert.

A Societal Problem

Every American workplace is subject to abusive, uncooperative and unprofessional individuals hired for their "brilliance" or apparently desirable "aggressiveness." These people routinely undermine legitimate business interests by rendering work teams dysfunctional.

The 2007 Workplace Bullying Institute-Zogby International survey, the first U.S. scientific poll of workplace bullying, revealed that 37% of American workers have experienced bullying (as defined by WBI) directly, with an additional 12% witnessing it. The majority of employers (62%) either ignored or worsened reported situations across all industries.

Regrettably, the U.S. is the only western industrialized nation which does not have federal or state laws addressing abusive work environments caused by disruptive individuals.