The Joint Commission, a national hospital-accrediting agency, warned Wednesday hospitals, clinics and other providers that hostile behavior in the workplace needs to end because it might lead to medical errors that can cause patient harm. Therefore, all medical providers should no longer tolerate it.

Such behaviors include ignoring questions, acting impatient, insulting colleagues or speaking them in condescending tones, verbal abuse, all the way to throwing medical utensils and jeopardizing safety.

What’s even worse is that such behaviors are often not reported because a culture of intimidation practiced by those making the mistakes.

“It’s a problem that goes underreported, threatens patient safety and has become so ingrained in health care that it’s rarely talked about,” Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission told reporters, as quoted by the MSNBC.

He further added that “patients deserve the care, compassion and professionalism that most health care workers show every day. It’s important for organizations to take a clear stand by defining behaviors that threaten patient safety and refusing to tolerate them.”

Conclusively, the Joint Commision is asking hospitals and other health care organizations to develop a code of conduct and a system to deal with bad behaviors even in the case of doctors or administrators. These new standards have to be finalized until January 1, 2009, when they will go into effect.

The Joint Commission suggests hospitals including teaching staff about basic business etiquette and people skills, making sure health care providers are not afraid to report problems, and setting a “zero” tolerance” policy for intimidating and disruptive behavior.

The Joint Commission was founded in 1951. It currently evaluates and accredits more than 15,000 U.S. health-care organizations, including nearly 5,000 hospitals.