Docs Gone Bad: Your top doc just threw a tantrum. Now what?

“He actually left the OR at an outpatient facility, gowned and gloved, and walked out verbally abusing staff for not answering the phone appropriately,” Dr. Waguespack recalled. “The senior-most individual on site, the anesthesiologist, told this individual that he needed to go back and finish his caseload and that he would not be able to return to the facility until the incident had been fully investigated. Ultimately, he lost his privileges at the facility.”

In an outpatient surgi-center or a large, well-organized practice, Dr. Waguespack said, a chief of staff or compliance officer would be responsible for addressing a physician’s disruptive behavior. “In a smaller practice, it would need to be a senior surgeon, peer-to-peer counseling. You give the doctor the opportunity to change their behavior and offer counseling if it’s pretty egregious. If behavior doesn’t change, remedies can include monetary penalties, limiting the scope of their practice or ultimately removal from the practice.”

Dr. Healy believes that disruptive physicians are a threat to the heart of medical professionalism: “I told one surgeon, did you train for nine years to be a bully? Is that the legacy you want to leave—not the great surgeon who knew how to take out lung cancer, but the person who abused everybody and threw instruments? Your legacy depends on how you behave.” ENTtoday

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