Sexual harassment in health care: a major productivity problem.

Sexual harassment in health care is a problem because of exorbitant legal costs, lost productivity, poor morale, and nonproductive absenteeism or turnover. Sexual harassment is more prevalent in health care. Health care organizations often do little to prevent it and do not respond properly when it occurs. In this article, legal precedents are reviewed, and a model of sexual harassment is developed to illustrate the phenomenon and identify interventions. Harassing and stereotyping behavior can be changed. Victims' responses and willingness to report incidents can be changed. Policies, sanctions, accountability, training, the type of investigations, and changed organizational culture help reduce sexual harassment. It is argued that reduction of sexual harassment in health care is important because it is a major productivity issue.