Harassment issues should be dealt with before they become problems

Sexual and other forms of harassment are common in the medical work environment. Physicians who are employers and medical educators as well as clinicians should be aware they may be held responsible for the harassing conduct of colleagues, employees and others unless measures are in place in the workplace that show reasonable efforts have been made to prevent the behaviour and deal with it appropriately when it occurs. This article uses a US case to illustrate the evolution of a sexual-harassment complaint over several years.