In case there’s any question that extreme arrogance by some doctors leads to medical malpractice, including death, two new surveys of hospitals health care workers revealed some completely frightening statistics.
As reported today in the New York Times, according to one survey, “67 percent of respondents said they thought there was a link between disruptive behavior and medical mistakes, and 18 percent said they knew of a mistake that occurred because of an obnoxious doctor.” The other survey “found that 40 percent of hospital staff members reported having been so intimidated by a doctor that they did not share their concerns about orders for medication that appeared to be incorrect. As a result, 7 percent said they contributed to a medication error.”
And besides patients who are injured or killed, nurses get the brunt of it. Here’s what that Times wrote about one incident: "A nurse called a surgeon to come and verify his next surgical patient and to mark the spot where the operation would be done. The harried surgeon yelled at the nurse to get the patient ready herself. When he showed up late to the operating room, he did not realize the surgery site was mismarked and operated on the wrong part. 'The surgeon then berated the entire team for their error and continued to denigrate them to others, when the error was the surgeon’s because he failed to cooperate in the process,' Dr. Angood said."
Another nurse "recalled a particularly humiliating moment on Dec. 25, 2006. Working in the pediatric emergency room, she called a drug by its generic name rather than its brand name. 'I was quickly shouted out of the trauma room and humiliated in front of everyone,' she said. But while 'everyone knew the doctor was actually the one who didn’t know what he was doing,' she continued, no one said a word."
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