Ask the expert: How should physician leaders handle whistleblowers?

It is not uncommon for disruptive physicians to claim they are the champions of good medical practice and are being persecuted for their actions on behalf of quality. They may argue that what others see as disruptive behavior is actually patient advocacy. Disruptive doctors are attracted to this argument because true whistleblowing can be a protected activity under some federal and state regulations. However, this claim usually is belied by the disruptive physician’s failure to follow appropriate channels to report and handle valid complaints.

Therefore, investigate any complaints that such physicians make. If the complaints are never valid, the physician’s argument that he or she is only acting to bring important lapses to the attention of management is rendered invalid. And even if the complaints are substantiated, it does not excuse bringing them forward in an unprofessional manner.

Provide the disruptive physician with counseling to teach him or her how to communicate quality concerns properly and carefully document those efforts. Likewise, create a paper trail to prove that you investigated the physician’s complaints.

Hospital leaders should move forward to aggressively and appropriately manage the disruptive conduct. In cases where courts have been asked to distinguish true whistleblowing from disruptive conduct, they have had little difficulty seeing the difference.

This weeks question and answer are excerpted from A Practical Guide to Preventing and Solving Disruptive Physician Behavior by Richard A. Sheff, MD and Todd Sagin, MD, JD.