ABSTRACT #14

CLASSIFYING CO-WORKER COMPLAINTS THROUGHOUT MEDICAL TRAINING: PEERING INTO PROFESSIONALISM

Brianna Hill, Jennifer Jo, Brijen Shah, Michael Brodman

PURPOSE AND GOALS: Professional behavior is expected of medical students, residents and trainees within the Mount Sinai Health System and in July 2021 the Cup of Coffee program was launched at Mount Sinai through the Committee on Professionalism in Health Care. The program addresses unprofessional behavior with a peer delivered message. This study aims to better qualify the types of professionalism lapses being reported at Mount Sinai, describe any themes in the content of reports, and compare reports involving trainees to non trainees.

METHODS: Reports were made by hospital staff members through pre-existing hospital-wide patient safety and compliance infrastructure at Mount Sinai including the OB Code of Professionalism, SafetyNet, Compliance Hotline and Mistreatment Portal. These reports were externally reviewed by the Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to determine if the reports were suitable for the Cup of Coffee Program at Mount Sinai. The selected reports were then shared with the committee at Mount Sinai and reviewed by researchers of this project. A data set was created using four codes and 13 domains.

EVALUATION PLAN: Reports were assigned a primary and secondary code and domain using a validated coding scheme. Researchers also clustered reports by narrative theme. Two researchers independently reviewed each report. When discrepancies in coding existed a third researcher would evaluate when discrepancies appeared. Reports involving trainees were compared to reports involving non trainees.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS: Professionalism in healthcare is a quality many residency programs and medical schools value, including Mount Sinai, and the current understanding of what encompasses professionalism includes respect and dignity. This study aims to qualify common themes across reports of unprofessionalism made through pre-existing reporting programs across Mount Sinai Health System. This project qualified the types of professionalism lapses being reported at Mount Sinai, described themes associated with reports and compared reports involving trainees to non trainees. By studying the data received as part of the Cup of Coffee Program the medical school and health system gain a better understanding of potential systematic, environmental and educational gaps leading to less professional behavior. With a better understanding of lapses in professionalism there is an opportunity to intervene in these areas to improve professionalism in the training and practice environment.

REFLECTIVE

CRITIQUE:

This study is limited to data from only one year and one academic center. Additionally the Cup of Coffee program at Mount Sinai was launched in July 2021 and knowledge of its existence may not have reached all departments and areas of the hospital equally. This may impact the distribution of reports across departments. Lastly, there is no investigation process associated with these reports and thus the events described in the reports reviewed reflect the perspective of one individual.