From May 2007 to Oct. 2009, 177 total incidences involving disruptive behavior were reported by the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority. Of these, 73 instances of decreased patient safety were due to conflicts between healthcare clinicians. Other instances of disruptive behavior included not appropriately following procedures and delays or absence of responses.
The study suggests that disruptive behaviors compromise patient safety by increasingly the likelihood of complications, including increased risk of hospital-associated infections, increased risk of burns or delays to pain control.
According to the study, some specific recorded examples of disruptive behavior include a surgeon walking out of an operating room after an argument; a physician refusing to wait for topical anesthetic to set before performing a procedure; hospital staff members delaying the administering of an epidural because of lunch breaks and/or not being on-call.
Read PPSA’s new release on the study of “disruptive behaviors” compromising patient safety.
Read more coverage on patient safety:
– California’s Sutter Health Received Quality Grant, Commits to $10M Patient Safety Initiative
– Texas Hospital Association Launches Texas Institute for Patient Safety
– Study: Electronic Records May Not Save Money or Reduce Complications, But May Save Lives
