Perception of intimidation in a perioperative setting.

Intimidation in health care settings can negatively affect patient safety. Following an adverse event in 2006 at Spectrum Health, a 7-hospital health care system in Grand Rapids, Michigan, leadership of the Grand Rapids perioperative services department led an initiative to evaluate and reduce the incidence of intimidation in the department. Physicians were surveyed to ascertain their beliefs about behaviors that constitute intimidation and to correlate those findings with definitions of intimidation identified by several national professional organizations.