Outcomes Illustrate Impact of Tone, Content of Responses to Complaints

The content and tone of how health professionals respond to any complaint or investigation into their conduct can affect the disposition of the regulator, says Lonny Rosen.

“Separate and apart from whatever conduct leads to a complaint or an investigation, the manner in which a physician or other health professional responds to the complaint or investigation can significantly impact the outcome,” he tells Advocate Daily.

Rosen says the importance of the response is underscored by a series of recent dispositions ordered by the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee (ICRC) of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) after it investigated several complaints of cyberbullying by doctors.

So far, CPSO has sanctioned six physicians for attacking other doctors online, says the Toronto Star. Three others face disciplinary hearings into alleged “professional misconduct" and investigations into another two are continuing, says the article.

The online attacks are related to a contract dispute between the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and provincial government, says the Star.

The newspaper summarized the dispositions after the College investigated comments made by a number of physicians on social media.In one case, the committee said that although the physician apologized, he did not view his "rant" as unprofessional, and he seemed to minimize his conduct, it says.

“As a result, he received a caution in person and a significant order to undertake continuing education,” Rosen says.

A case involving another doctor, who emphasized how regretful she was for her conduct and took proactive steps to demonstrate her contrition and remorse, received a caution but no specified continuing education or remediation program, he notes.

The outcome of these cases really illustrates how a physician’s response to a complaint or investigation into conduct matters, Rosen says.

“If the conduct cannot be denied and must be acknowledged, then it’s important to address it in a way that demonstrates there’s no need for further, or significant, action on the part of the committee,” he says.

“This may include taking proactive steps such as enrolling in courses, writing an apology or acknowledging head-on the inappropriateness of the conduct and its consequences. Minimizing it leaves the committee to believe that there’s a greater need to sanction the conduct.”

Rosen says these instances additionally underscore how physicians and other health professionals will be held accountable for off-duty conduct. “and must also behave professionally particularly when they are identifying themselves as a health professional.”