Hospitals fail to address harassment of health care workers in patient bill of rights

Health care workers can be subject to sexual harassment from patients, yet new research finds that few hospitals explicitly outline intolerance of this behavior in the patient bill of rights. Scientists analyzed patient bill of rights and responsibilities from 50 hospitals associated with medical schools in the U.S., and found that 22% explicitly had language offering protection from sexual abuse or harassment in the patient of bill of rights, which outlines what patients can expect from hospitals. However, none of the bills of responsibilities — which outline what hospitals expect from patients — contained specific language about patient-perpetrated sexual harassment against hospital workers. The authors suggest that hospitals revise their patient bill of rights and responsibilities to specifically outline zero tolerance for harassment from patients in order to help prevent it.