Health Care News

 

(Photo of sailboat in the Lake Washington Ship Canal, Seattle, by me.)

I wanted to highlight some recent health care news for my colleagues (not just nurses).  

Group calls for zero tolerance of doctor bullies 

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 9

Bullying doctors can make nurses afraid to question their performance, resulting in medical errors, according to a hospital group that announced new requirements for cracking down on intimidating behavior.

Outbursts and condescending language threaten patient safety and increase the cost of care, according to a safety alert issued Wednesday by the Joint Commission, an independent organization that accredits most of the nation's hospitals.

Hospitals will be required by next year to have codes of conduct and processes for dealing with inappropriate behavior by staff, said the group's president, Dr. Mark Chassin. Hospitals without such systems risk losing their accreditation, he said.

Powerful doctors mean money for hospitals because they choose where to admit their patients, but they "should not be left off the hook," said Dr. Peter Angood, vice president of the group, which is based in suburban Chicago...

Hostile Hospital Behavior Rapped

July 9, 2008 -- Intimidating and disruptive behaviors from health care workers are "not rare" in hospitals and other health care organizations, and a U.S. hospital accreditation group today put that behavior in permanent time-out.

"By allowing this type of behavior to go unchecked, health care organizations are tacitly condoning it," Mark Chassin, MD, MPP, MPH, president of The Joint Commission, said at a news conference. "Enough is enough."

The Joint Commission's new standards -- which go into effect on Jan. 1, 2009 -- require hospitals and other health care organizations to develop a code of conduct and a system to deal with bad behaviors ranging from being uncooperative to being verbally or physically abusive -- even if the offender is a big shot doctor or an administrator.

BULLYING BEHAVIORS

Acts that interfere with patient care
Medical intimidation can encompass behaviors that range from verbal insults to physical assault, say researchers who've studied the problem for years. The broad category includes the following specific behaviors, outlined in a medical safety journal.
— Profane or disrespectful language
— Demeaning behavior, such as name-calling
— Sexual comments or innuendo
— Inappropriate touching, sexual or otherwise
— Racial or ethnic jokes
— Outbursts of anger
— Throwing instruments, charts or other objects
— Criticizing other caregivers in front of patients or other staff
— Comments that undermine a patient's trust in other caregivers or the hospital
— Comments that undermine a caregiver's self-confidence in caring for patients
— Failure to adequately address safety concerns or patient care needs expressed by another caregiver
— Intimidating behavior that suppresses input by other members of the healthcare team
— Deliberate failure to adhere to organizational policies without evidence to support an alternative
— Retaliation against any member of the health care team who has reported a violation to the code of conduct or who has participated in an investigation of an incident

Cipro, similar antibiotics to get 'black box' warning

Posted July 8, 2008

Washington (AP) _ Drug safety officials are calling for an urgent safety warning for Cipro and similar antibiotics. 

The Food and Drug Administration is ordering the "black box" wording due to evidence the drugs may lead to tendon ruptures. They say the ruptures could result in serious injury that can leave patients incapacitated and in need of extensive 
surgery. 

The makers of the potent class of antibacterials will also need to develop new literature for patients to emphasize the risks. The two leading drugs covered by the warning are Cipro, made by Bayer, and Levaquin, which is made by Ortho-McNeil. 

Tendon ruptures normally result from sports injuries. The link to treatment with the antibiotics is highly unusual, and scientists still don't fully understand why it happens. 

FDA officials said they had received several hundred reports of tendon ruptures. However, FDA officials say many of the serious injuries could be preventable if patients stop taking the drug at the first sign of pain or swelling in a tendon, call a doctor, and switch to another antibiotic. For more information, please visit

http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/InfoSheets/HCP/fluoroquinolonesHCP.htm

AMA to apologize to black doctors for racism

"The American Medical Association is issuing a formal apology for more than a century of discriminatory policies that excluded blacks from participating in a group long considered the voice of U.S. doctors...

...It comes more than 40 years after AMA delegates denounced policies at state and local medical societies dating to the 1800s that barred blacks. For decades, AMA delegates resisted efforts to get them to speak out forcefully against discrimination or to condemn the smaller medical groups that historically have had a big role in shaping AMA policy...

..."It is true that what the AMA did historically was awful," said Dr. Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society's chief medical officer. "There were AMA local chapters that actually had rules against black members well into the late 1960s, and policies that made blacks not feel comfortable well into the 1980s."...

On the Net:

AMA: http://www.ama-assn.org

NMA: http://www.nmanet.org