Which Physician Specialists Are Behaving Badly?

July 17, 2024

Written by Amanda Mathews

Spoon Feed
Unprofessional behaviors were reported most often among surgeons when comparing physician specialty subgroups.

Give respect to get respect
Researchers utilized the Coworker Concern Observation Reporting System (CORS), an electronic safety event reporting system used by 193 hospitals to identify the cohort for this study. CORS allows coworkers to submit reports regarding an individual’s unprofessional behavior across medical professions. For the purposes of this study, only physicians were included. To determine if there was a difference by specialty in the proportion of physicians who were identified as demonstrating unprofessional behaviors, four physicians groups were identified: non-surgeon non-proceduralists, emergency medicine physicians, non-surgeon proceduralists, and surgeons.  There was also subgroup analysis of physicians who were pediatric focused or non-pediatric focused among the four groups.

The cohort included 35,120 physicians of which 52.1% were non-surgeon non-proceduralists, 23.4% surgeons, 19.2% non-surgeon proceduralists, and 5.3% emergency medicine physicians. Of the cohort, 3,179 (9.1%) physicians had at least one CORS report. The most common type of report for all specialties involved clear and respectful communication.

Non-surgeon, non-proceduralists had the lowest percentage of physicians with reports (5.3%) followed by emergency medicine (10.9%), non-surgeon proceduralists (12.0%), and then surgeons (13.8%). Pediatric focused non-surgeon, non-proceduralists were significantly less likely to have a CORS reports compared to their non-pediatric counterparts; however, across the other three groups there was no difference between pediatric focused physicians and non-pediatric focused physicians.

How will this change my practice?
This is interesting retrospective data, but it is hard to identify any specific conclusions from this study due to its heterogeneity across specialties, locations, and practice environments. We can all double down on our commitment to professional conduct in the workplace, as we know that unprofessional behavior not only affects our healthcare teams but also the patients we care for.

Source
Physician Specialty Differences in Unprofessional Behaviors Observed and Reported by Coworkers. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(6):e2415331. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.15331