What's in your code of conduct?

In Managing Problem Practitioners: A Leadership Guide to Dealing with Impaired, Disruptive, Aging, and Burned-out Clinicians, author Todd Sagin, MD, JD, provides the tools you'll need to confront this issue head-on. A strong code of conduct policy defines an organization's expectations of professional conduct for practitioners as well as other staff. In this new book, Sagin writes:

"A code of conduct can provide code of conduct is not the only location in which to articulate appropriate and inappropriate professional conduct. Such statements can be incorporated into medical staff bylaws, medical staff policies on conduct, rules and regulations, or in a freestanding document that more broadly states performance expectations for medical staff members. In fact, the more places unprofessional behaviors are enumerated, the more likely they are to be viewed by practitioners who need this guidance. A common practice is to incorporate a code of conduct within a broader policy on conduct that discusses how the code is to be utilized and how adherence to the code will be monitored and enforced."

Click here to see elements of a code of conduct policy.