QUESTION:
Our hospital recently employed a small group of orthopedic surgeons. There have been rumblings that hospital administration was unhappy with the performance of the private orthopods and there is clear tension between administration and the private group. There was an incident last week in the cafeteria where one of the private orthopods allegedly yelled and got in the face of one of our hospital administrators. The administrator wants to deescalate the situation and hasn’t filed a complaint, but how should we as a medical staff handle the matter?
OUR ANSWER FROM HORTYSPRINGER ATTORNEY JOHN WIECZOREK:
This is an excellent question and the administrator’s response is completely understandable, but the best practice in this situation is to follow your Medical Staff Professionalism Policy. If medical staff leaders become aware that a practitioner’s behavior in the hospital may be inconsistent with the expectations for medical staff members, the leadership can and should review that behavior under the Professionalism Policy. The review by the medical staff leadership does not depend on the administrator filing a complaint.
The Professionalism Policy should require that appropriate fact-finding take place and that the private orthopod have an opportunity to provide input. This fact-finding and input will allow the medical staff leaders to understand the context in which the dispute occurred.
As I said, the administrator’s hesitance in filing a complaint is natural. From that individual’s perspective, filing a complaint will not only increase the tension that seems to be occurring between hospital administration and the private orthopods, but it will also open a door for the private orthopods to claim they are being targeted by administration. However, the risk of not acting is that potentially inappropriate behavior is not addressed. This is bad for the culture at the hospital and the credibility of the medical staff leadership. Also, allegations that administration is targeting the private orthopods can be addressed by good fact-finding and documentation (e.g., by talking with others who witnessed the event). Allegations of bias, while scary, would be easily dispelled in this situation.
Additionally, the downsides of not filing a complaint are potentially much greater. For example, what if the surgeon’s behavior continues to cause disruption in the hospital and the medical staff needs to impose some form of discipline? Without addressing this particular incident, your medical staff will be missing a key part of the record to use if and when the time comes to deal with the surgeon’s behavioral issues.