A new alert issued by The Joint Commission warns that rude language and hostile behavior among health care professionals goes beyond being unpleasant and poses a serious threat to patient safety and the overall quality of care.

Intimidating and disruptive behaviors are such a serious issue that, in addition to addressing it in the new Sentinel Event Alert, The Joint Commission is introducing new standards requiring more than 15,000 accredited health care organizations to create a code of conduct that defines acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and to establish a formal process for managing unacceptable behavior.

The new standards take effect January 1, 2009 for hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, laboratories, ambulatory care facilities, and behavioral health care facilities across the United States.

The complete list and text of past issues of Sentinel Event Alert can be found on The Joint Commission's website (http://www.jointcommission.org).

Source: Joint Commission Alert, July 9, 2008.