Arrogant, Abusive and Disruptive Behavior Contributes to Hospital Errors

If you’ve ever been a patient in a hospital, or if you have a chronic illness, you know that nearly every hospital has that one or two doctors that humiliate, intimidate and harass other staff members - particularly nurses and residents. This behavior is not only demoralizing and intimidating, but it contributes to medication and other medical errors.

Tolerance is Decreasing
The yelling, screaming, belittling, cursing, and even throwing scalpels at surgical nurses is compared to road rage. Nurses and other staff members are often intimidated by this behavior, and doctors’ mistakes go unreported, thereby contributing to medical and medication errors in hospitals and even clinics. High nurse turnover and dissatisfaction of patients has caused hospitals to implement behavior rules, consequences for bad doctor behavior, and even caused some hospitals to send doctors to anger management.
Nurses do it, too.
Nurses sometimes act this way toward patients. If you have a nurse who belittles you or blows off your complaints, you have the right to tell them not to come back to your room, and to ask the charge desk to send another nurse. Tell them why you want someone else taking care of you. A nurse who cannot understand that you are ill or in pain, or in fear for your safety or that of your child due to the symptoms you/they are having, needs to be someplace other than in patient contact and care areas. Don’t let a nurse with an attitude problem intimidate you into not reporting symptoms or speaking up about discomfort. These are signs that you could be getting sicker.
Speak Up
If you hear a doctor yelling at or intimidating a nurse or a resident, speak up. If you aren’t comfortable confronting the doctor personally you can complain to the patient advocate. Allowing hospital staff to be intimidated this way contributes to poor communication and poor care, which increases medication errors. Do not be intimidated into not participating fully in your own care.
Mistakes can be prevented.
Medication mistakes in hospitals and at the pharmacy are preventable. Millions of people are injured every year because of medication errors, prescription errors at the pharmacy, and other medical errors. Regardless of how it happens, you have rights when it comes to medication errors. Order our free book to learn all you need to know about taking action after pharmacy errors or medication errors. You can also call our office at 888-526-7616 for a free case review.