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Dike Drummond MD
is an executive coach
for physicians at
TheHappyMD.com
No doctor wants to be known as disruptive. Here,
Dike Drummond offers
advice on how to raise your concerns and avoid name-calling.
Avoiding Labels
`Disruptive physician' is one of the most
misused terms in healthcare these days.
In many organisations, those two words
have become the c-suite's trump card to
quash any physician resistance to new
administrative programs. These programs
often have purely financial motives, or are
a brazen attempt to dump additional tasks
on physicians, with no regard for their
workload or stress levels.
The doctor's legitimate concerns about
quality of care don't matter. They are lost in
the politics of the silos of the administrative
and clinical sides of the organisation.
Having been quickly identified as not being
a `team player', the `disruptive physician'
label comes flying out and the doctor is
deftly tossed under the bus so the meeting
can move on to the next topic.
Often, this is bullying, plain and simple.
It can create permanent consequences for
the physician, including diversion into any
number of `treatment programs' and, not
uncommonly, losing their job.
However, sometimes the disruptive
name-calling is just a consequence of a
fundamental clash of communication styles
between physicians and administrators.
In this situation, the skills inside the
`Disruptive Physician's Toolkit' will allow you to:
· Air your legitimate concern.
· Be heard by the administration.
· Avoid being labeled as `disruptive' in
the process.
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