Hi Advice readers! Have you ever thought about writing into Good Job? Now’s the time—our inbox is in need of more questions! Conundrums big and small are welcome, and of course, it’s anonymous. Submit your work questions to Good Job here. (Or your questions about anything else to our other columns here.)
Dear Good Job,
I work for a major hospital system that is nationally recognized for its excellence. But they need to be held accountable for what goes on behind the scenes.
While our hospital is absolutely the place to go for a rare disease, complex brain tumor, or mysterious pediatric illness, the bedside care for something standard like a fall or pneumonia is mediocre. The “highest quality of care” does not extend to all patients in all situations. I am embarrassed and ashamed on behalf of my patients and angry at the institution: Budgeting is their primary defense for why people in my department are drowning in work, and patients cannot get quality, timely care. It is to the point where I am confident the department is breaking the law due to a lack of staffing.
We have a visit coming up from a regulatory board, which, among other things, will be investigating how often we see patients and if we don’t see them, the reasons why not. While I know my employer will provide every explanation in the book, the simple truth is a lack of staffing. I am thinking more and more about flipping my badge around, writing down a few key points, and trying to speak to someone from the board anonymously and privately during their visit to explain my concerns and urge them to find some broader, more public way to hold my employer accountable. This happened once before, years ago, and my employer’s response was to … write higher productivity standards for my team. It is clear that a slap on the wrist is not enough to make meaningful change.
My partner is begging me not to be a whistleblower. My institution crows about their sterling reputation often, and my partner is fearful of retaliation against me. They expressed concern about everything from physical harm to my bosses just making the workplace hell for me. And sure, there are laws to protect someone from retaliation, but as we see for companies like Boeing, those protections frequently fall short and people are harmed in any number of ways by their experience after they have raised the alarm.
I feel deeply called to try to expose what is happening with the hope that it can change. But my partner is usually the less cautious one, so for him to express so much concern gives me serious pause. Any thoughts?
—Don’t Whistle While You Work
Dear Don’t Whistle,
Thank you for trying to improve your patients’ care and your colleagues’ working conditions. This regulatory review is one opportunity to be a whistleblower, but you have other, possibly safer options. For the current review, see what you can find out about the regulatory board members and the board’s record of demanding excellence from hospitals. A chummy, perfunctory board will have a history of accepting employers’ nothing-to-see-here explanations, and asking to meet with a member privately probably won’t help. A good board should solicit confidential feedback from people at all levels of the hospital hierarchy during the review process. If they provide a safe channel for feedback, use it, and provide as many specifics as possible. If anyone on the current regulatory board was present for the review several years ago, they might be motivated to scrutinize your employer more closely if they learn that their concerns were dismissed back then. If you don’t trust this review board, consider contacting your state’s healthcare commission using a confidential tip line.
The most effective way to blow a whistle, though, could be through the media. Your hospital system may be nationally recognized for excellence because it truly meets that standard, but I’m sure it has also invested a lot in fundraising, marketing, and public relations. Nothing will motivate its leadership to fix problems more than journalists asking probing questions. Your local newspaper (if you still have one) and TV stations should have reporters who have covered your hospital in the past and who would like to hear from you. Health and business reporters at national outlets might want to pursue a story about a famous hospital system delivering a two-tier quality of care.
Whatever you choose to do, put safety first. Use your personal device (or a friend’s, or the library’s) rather than any technology your hospital can monitor. Many journalists share their signal accounts on LinkedIn or Bluesky, and you can contact them through the app for encrypted conversations, which is a method for keeping conversations secure from hackers and third parties. The Washington Post explains several ways to submit anonymous news tips. Reporters get a lot of story pitches, so provide as many details as possible: Explain how the low staffing could be breaking the law. Tell them if there has been retaliation against staff who complain. Point them to any data showing that your patients with non-specialist conditions have worse care or outcomes than similar patients in other hospital systems. If you choose to speak with a reporter, you can share information “off the record,” “on background,” or “anonymously,” which are three slightly different ways of protecting yourself while sharing crucial information.
—Laura
More Advice From Slate
My parents got divorced when my sister and I were very young. My dad remarried and had two children. He also began making quite a bit of money. He is now approaching 80 and his wife is 67. They have put their considerable assets into an estate plan with this basic structure: Dad and stepmom each have half of their assets to distribute. Dad has four kids, each gets 25 percent. Stepmom has two kids, each gets 50 percent. All fine. Here is the problem: My stepmom really hates my sister and me.
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