A young doctor at a local community hospital was upset by content posted by othe

Question

A young doctor at a local community hospital was upset by content posted by other doctors, nurses, and interns on a popular social networking site. These doctors and nurses discussed their work, including specific cases they had. Their postings included derogatory comments and slurs about the economically disadvantaged, mentally disturbed, and homosexual clients they treated on a regular basis. They also commented that the upper-class citizenry and politicians of the city deigned not to use the services of the hospital, preferring instead to go to a large privately owned hospital outside of town. Photos of these doc-tors and nurses on their pages showed them in hospital uniforms with the logo and name of the hospital clearly visible.

The young doctor who was upset by the material viewable on the website reported it to his supervising physician. The supervisor worked with hospital administration to pursue the complaints. The hospital made sure to work with the city’s legal department to respect the First Amendment rights of the doctors and nurses involved. A hospital review board met behind closed doors to examine the complaint and the behavior of the doctors and nurses to recommend discipline in the matter.

Ultimately, the review board recommended written censure of the doctors and nurses involved along with their loss of hospital privileges for six months, during which time they were to work in the local poverty health center. They were also to participate in extensive sensitivity training programs. The hospital administration accepted the recommendations and presented them to the doctors and nurses.

The doctors and nurses accepted their discipline with the stipulation that after completing the six-month they were to return to full hospital status. The expectation of hospital administration was that the doctors and nurses would be committed to moving ahead and working to get the incident behind them, while the hospital would work to improve relationships with the community.

Responding To The Case
14-14. Was it appropriate for hospital administration to discipline the doctors and nurses for behavior that occurred outside the hospital environment? Why or why not?

14-15. If you were the supervisor who received the information regarding the social networking site postings, what would your reaction have been?

14-16. Was this case an example of effective discipline?Why or why not?

Explanation / Answer

14-14: Yes, it was appropriate for the hospital administration to discipline the doctors and nurses for behavior that occurred outside the hospital environment. Though the behavior occurred outside, the wrong contents including offensive comments regarding the patients were posted by the doctors and other staff in the social networking sites which are well accessed by the public. Their actions would have affected the hospital reputation as they are the face of the organization. The photos that showed them in the hospital uniform with the hospital name and the logos make it clear that the conversation is regarding the local community hospital. The hospital integrity among the public would be lost when the patients will come to know about the incident. The hospital should take disciplinary actions for such irresponsible acts and to prevent such occurrence in future.

14-15: If I was the supervisor I too would have taken disciplinary actions. But the difference is that I may not have this much patience to analyze the situation and find best decision as I am more susceptible to emotions. If I find this kind of disciplinary issues that affect the values of the organization, I would have taken serious actions including firing. Posting inappropriate contents are not protected by the first amendment through freedom of speech and I do not believe it will be unethical or illegal to fire in such circumstances. The employees have the responsibility to protect the values of the organization and stay away from the acts that would have negative impact on the organization. Moreover strict actions are required in certain cases to have proper control over the situation.

14-16: This case is an example of effective discipline because the decisions are taken under this case after careful examination of the situation and the underlying laws and is not taken out of emotions. The decision to take the privileges away for six months and insist the defaulters to work in the local poverty health center and participate in extensive sensitivity training programs during that time seems to be a matured decision intended towards improving the performance apart from ensuring punishment.   The training and the experience in the local poverty health center may change the employee attitude towards poor and other minorities and may ensure better service from them in future.

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