ACPE doctoral-level therapists highlight “bad boy” workplace behavior in new manual on managing healthcare’s troublemakers

TAMPA – The medical community took notice when the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in Raess v. Doescher that the hospital had to pay $325,000 in damages resulting from the misconduct of a surgeon in a landmark workplace bullying case.

The state’s highest court acknowledged it as possibly the basis of a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress arising from a supervisor’s workplace misconduct. In this case, a hospital room perfusionist claimed a cardiovascular surgeon approached him with “clenched fists, piercing eyes, a beet-red face, and popping veins,” spouting obscenity-laced threats that he “was finished!”
The advent of health reform has perhaps exacerbated disruptive behavior, along with empirical linkage between disruptive behavior and clinical outcomes ranging from medical errors to mortality, prompting healthcare executives to expeditiously mainstream preventive measures and take corrective action quickly.

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