Workplace bullying takes its toll

Nurse-on-nurse, doctor-on-doctor, doctor-on-nurse – workplace bullying takes many different forms, all of them serious. The effects of workplace bullying are far-reaching and have bottom-line implications for the institutions that overlook or allow such behavior.

 

A 2008 Sentinel Event alert by the Joint Commission noted that intimidating and disruptive behaviors, ranging from verbal outbursts to physical threatening to passive-aggressiveness, can lead to and have caused medical errors, higher employee turnover rates and legal action.

 

James Whalen, an orthopedic surgeon in Machias, Me., said he endured workplace bullying for a year and a half. After nearly three decades of working at the Down East Community Hospital, he said he found himself the target of the hospital's administration after he spoke to a state investigator looking into complaints about another of the hospital's physicians.

 

Whalen faced several reviews by the hospital, hired legal counsel and filed a whistleblower's complaint. His last encounter with the hospital's administration caused him to finally severe his relationship with the facility.

"I was yelled at – literally yelled at – for half an hour, in front of all these people that I had worked with," he said. "It was just overwhelming. I was shaking when I got out of there. I said this is what 29 years of hard work and good service to the community has come down to – people sitting and bullying me."

 

Thirty-five percent of workers in the United States have been bullied and an additional 15 percent witness workplace bullying, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute's 2010 workplace bullying survey. Despite the Joint Commission's code of conduct, the healthcare industry is still one of the industries most prone to bullying, said WBI's co-founder, Gary Namie, PhD.

 

Hospitals are loathe to acknowledge bullying, Namie said, because of public perception and, often, revenue considerations.

 

"How does an administrator hold accountable a doc whose face is plastered on the billboard as the number one revenue generating center of the hospital? What do you do when it's your big cardiovascular surgeon hero that the marketing department loves but is a holy terror?" he asked.

 

If the bully is a person who is bringing in a lot of money, institutional leadership often turns a blind eye to his or her bad behavior, said Natalie Ivey, president and CEO of Results Performance Consulting in Florida.

 

"You have to really assess what is your risk in retaining this person," she said. "The risk is in the form of turnover. The risk is in the potential for legal claims under Title 7 (of the Civil Rights Act). The risk is negligence and claims that are filed under common law."

 

Organizations need to have anti-bullying policies in place and must abide by them, workplace bullying experts say. "You need to look at what is your reward if you let (the bully) go," Ivey said. "What example is set in the organization? That we do enforce our company policies and we are a respectful workplace."