Hospitals lag in sexual harassment insurance policies

(HealthDay)—Few establishments have clear insurance policies that particularly handle sexual harassment from sufferers towards physicians and employees, based on a analysis letter revealed on-line Nov. 17 in JAMA Community Open.

Gabriela Reed, M.D., from College of California in San Francisco, and colleagues emailed chief medical officers (or equal), requesting insurance policies on sexual harassment by sufferers and/or their households towards physicians for the highest 50 U.S. hospitals utilizing 2020 Newsweek rankings.

Among the many 28 respondents, the researchers reported 4 establishments reported no relevant insurance policies, six reported having a coverage they had been unable to share, and 18 shared a number of insurance policies or related paperwork. Six establishments not sharing their coverage offered an outline by e-mail. Primarily based on the 24 evaluable establishments, the next behaviors had been explicitly described in at the least one coverage: sexual harassment (75 %), bodily assault/violence (58 %), verbal harassment/intimidation (50 %), and discrimination (54 %). Seventeen of 24 establishments described a response to inappropriate conduct, with one having a delegated response workforce to help those that skilled harassment. Of the 24 establishments, 14 addressed sexual harassment from sufferers towards physicians, however solely three establishments particularly talked about sexual harassment with regard to affected person therapy of employees.

“Establishments can depend on exemplar insurance policies like Mayo Clinic’s, which clearly defines sexual harassment and descriptions a stepwise institutional response,” the authors write. “We hope that highlighting high hospitals’ insurance policies might impress constructive adjustments to different institutional insurance policies.”

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