ATLANTA, GA (July 11, 2008) – In the wake of JCAHO’s revised Leadership standards and the release of a new Sentinel Event Alert emphasizing the patient safety and quality risks created by inappropriate behavior in the healthcare workplace, ELI is urging clients to employ a comprehensive approach for addressing disruptive behavior, beginning with leadership and encompassing all aspects of the environment and culture.

“JCAHO’s recommendations mirror what we tell clients in all industries,” says ELI president Stephen M. Paskoff, Esq., “but these issues are particularly relevant in the healthcare environment, where disruptive behaviors may be more commonplace, egregious, and ingrained in the culture, and where the fear of retaliation for raising complaints is real and in many ways unique to the hierarchical structure of healthcare organizations.”

The new JCAHO standards, which become effective January 1, 2009, will require healthcare organizations to create a code of conduct outlining acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and to implement a process for managing problematic behavior. Among other steps, JCAHO recommends that healthcare organizations implement skills-based training, hold everyone accountable to professional standards, and develop leadership role modeling and systems that reduce the fear of retaliation for raising concerns.

Because communication, teamwork, and collaboration all impact the quality of care a patient receives and the incidence of medical errors, it is vital organizations address not just the inappropriate behavior but also the culture that allows it to thrive. ELI recommends an approach that focuses on sustained cultural change and includes:

• Engaging leadership by demonstrating the link between behavior and patient outcomes
• Changing behavior and the overall culture through role modeling, communication, education, measurement, and follow up
• Building skills to create a welcoming environment for concerns
• Implementing systems that will support ongoing reinforcement and accountability at all levels

This approach is described in further detail in the ELI paper “Dealing with Difficult Doctors” and in Paskoff’s book “Teaching Big Shots to Behave,” both available from ELI. Related training programs from ELI also provide education and skills for addressing conduct referenced by the JCAHO Sentinel Event Alert, such as intimidation, bullying, unprofessionalism, retaliation, and other behaviors that may be exhibited in healthcare environments, often in times of stress or fatigue.

Additionally, ELI is currently conducting a survey on the types of behaviors creating the greatest risks in the workplace and what organizations are doing to address the conduct from a cultural perspective. Participation in the survey is open to the public, and results will be compiled into a research report to be made available this fall.

About ELI
Founded in 1986, ELI is a training company that teaches professional workplace conduct, helping clients translate their values into behaviors, increase employee contribution, build respectful and inclusive cultures, and reduce legal and ethical risk. Many of the nation’s most prominent healthcare institutions are ELI clients, implementing ELI training programs such as Just Doctors® and NextACT®: Skills for Values-Based Leadership. Stephen M. Paskoff, Esq., the company’s founder and president, is a nationally recognized speaker and author on issues ranging from workplace harassment and bullying prevention to behavior change and other business culture topics. A former trial attorney for the EEOC and partner in a management law firm, he is a member of the Georgia and Pennsylvania bars.

Contact:
ELI®
Marla Lepore
800-497-7654
marla@eliinc.com