discipline summaries
Dr. JAYANT SHANKERPRASAD BHATT
Practice Location: Brockville Area of Practice: Internal Medicine
Hearing InformATion: Admission, Agreed STATement of FacTS, Joint Submission on Penalty
On April 4, 2016, the Discipline Committee found that Dr. Jayant Bhatt committed an act of professional misconduct, in that he engaged in an act or omission that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional.
History of disruptive, unprofessional, and inappropriate conduct with women Dr. Bhatt has a history of disruptive, unprofessional and inappropriate conduct and behaviour toward female colleagues, staff, and patients in the hospital where he worked as the Chief of Medicine. Dr. Bhatt accordingly had entered into a contract with the hospital in 2011 setting out expectations for his behaviour and installing a workplace monitor. The hospital advised that the contract had been satisfied in January 2014.
In July 2014, the hospital made a report to the College because it had received seven new complaints regarding Dr. Bhatt’ s behaviour. As a result, Dr. Bhatt entered into a further voluntary undertaking with the hospital, agreeing to stop working in the ICU as well as refraining from participating in oncall consultations.
Behaviour toward patients The College investigation revealed that patients had complained to the hospital regarding Dr. Bhatt between 2008 and 2014. Patients had also specifically requested not to see Dr. Bhatt because of his unprofessional, inappropriate, and derogatory behaviour. For example, one patient in the cardiovascular program complained that Dr. Bhatt had commented on her weight and told her,“ You should keep the lights on at night so that the food fairy doesn’ t put food in your mouth,” and,“ I bet you $ 100 that you can’ t lose weight.” This patient felt hurt and intimidated by Dr. Bhatt’ s rude and unprofessional behaviour.
Behaviour toward hospital colleagues and staff The College’ s investigation also revealed that Dr. Bhatt had subjected hospital staff to inappropriate, derogatory and unprofessional behaviour between 2008 and 2014, including:
• Dr. Bhatt behaved inappropriately and rudely to Nurse A, both privately and in front of patients, including telling Nurse A to be quiet and not to talk to patients. Nurse A, on one occasion, asked Dr. Bhatt a question and her told her to“ shut the fuck up.” Nurse A asked Dr. Bhatt to stop behaving this way. He was better for about two days but he then reverted. Nurse A was stressed and frightened to the point that she had a panic button installed at her work station.
• Dr. Bhatt once yelled at Nurse B over the phone and she hung up. Dr. Bhatt then tried to call Nurse B at home. Later, Dr. Bhatt tried to go through Nurse B’ s husband to discuss the issue. Nurse B has observed Dr. Bhatt corner women in rooms who come out crying after speaking with him.
• Dr. Bhatt yelled at Nurse C, regarding paperwork. Dr. Bhatt suggested she would go to jail, which made Nurse C cry – the first doctor to do so in her 30-year career. Nurse C has observed Dr. Bhatt’ s rude and demeaning treatment of staff and patients and has reported his behaviour on several occasions to management.
• Nurse D has worked with Dr. Bhatt for 28 years, and described having to adjust to whatever mood Dr. Bhatt happens to be in. Dr. Bhatt has called Nurse D a“ monster.” Nurse D told Dr. Bhatt to stop calling her this name but Dr. Bhatt continued to do so. Although she did not feel physically endangered by him, Dr. Bhatt once hit Nurse D with a patient chart. Dr. Bhatt has called Nurse D“ stupid” and“ useless” in public. Nurse D has received numerous patient complaints about Dr. Bhatt and has had patients specifically ask not to see him.
• Dr. Bhatt interfered with Dr. X’ s care of a patient in the ER. Dr. Bhatt aggressively stated that the patient was not being cared for properly and instructed Dr. X to remove the patient’ s family from
Issue 1, 2017 Dialogue 43