“They’re a Great Physician, But…” Addressing Physician Incivility in a Complex World

Keynote Description:

If your high revenue-producing physician was about to make a mistake, would you want someone to call them on it or stay silent because no one wanted to be the target of this physician’s wrath? What if that mistake was going to happen to your parent, spouse, or child?

Honest and respectful communication among the interprofessional team is central to safe care. Hundreds of studies document definitively the impact of disrespectful behaviors on team performance and patient outcomes. When team members feel unable to speak up due to negative consequences, care will be compromised.

Yet, how often do we make excuses, justify, or rationalize a physician’s disrespectful behavior because of how clinically excellent they are or how much revenue they bring into the organization. We can no longer use silence as a strategy when it comes to behavior.

As an organizational psychologist and 2005 Fulbright Scholar in Organization Development, Dr. Mitch Kusy will help healthcare leaders identify behaviors that undermine a culture of safety in alignment with AONL Guiding Principles: Mitigating Violence in the Workplace, Joint Commission: Workplace Violence Prevention Standards, and American Medical Association: Bullying in the Practice of Medicine H-515.951.  Key takeaways include strategies to strengthen collegial interprofessional team relationships; improve communication, and hardwire the behaviors so  incidences of disruptive behaviors are immediately addressed and professionalism becomes the new norm.