Page 40 - Part One Risk Reduction Series - Documentation

SVMIC Risk Reduction Series: Documentation

Avoid Jousting or Finger-Pointing

Jousting or finger-pointing usually occurs when another

healthcare professional intentionally or unintentionally makes

sarcastic, disparaging or self-serving comments about prior care.

Jousting can also occur when potentially damaging remarks are

made outside of patient care about a particular physician, a
hospital department (emergency department, radiology, lab, etc.),

the nursing staff, equipment, EHR or administration. Criticizing

other healthcare professionals in the medical record is likely to

result in your unintentional involvement if the care is challenged.

You could even end up become an “expert witness” against a
colleague in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Criticisms or other derogatory remarks are often a result of

frustration with other staff or ineffective systems. Rather than

venting about the outdated equipment that ‘caused the medical

error’, address these issues through the appropriate chain of

command and not through the patient's medical record. In other
cases, the comments are not meant to be critical, but can be

perceived that way; for example, a note that includes “Mr. Roberts

complains of continued pain following complications of

arthroscopic knee surgery.”

Usually jousting centers around comments on prior care, either to
a patient directly or in the medical record; for example, “You mean

Dr. Jones didn’t order a CT when you saw him with these

symptoms?” Patients often have questions about another

provider’s care, particularly when the condition changes course

and/or additional symptoms or testing reveals a different diagnosis

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