Health Highlights: July 9, 2008

Hospital employees who use foul language and other bad behaviors against their colleagues pose a serious threat to patient safety, a U.S. accrediting agency says.

The Joint Commission is proposing new standards that require more than 15,000 accredited organizations to create a code of conduct that defines and manages unacceptable practices. These include ignoring questions; insulting, threatening or intimidating behavior; and speaking in a condescending way,MSNBCreported Wednesday.

These behaviors affect employee morale and could increase the likelihood of medical errors, the commission said.

An industry survey of some 2,000 clinicians found that more than 90 percent said they had been a victim of condescending language. And nearly 60 percent reported being verbally abused or encountering threatening body language,MSNBCsaid.

Set to take effect Jan. 1, the proposed conduct standards would affect hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, laboratories, ambulatory care facilities and behavioral health facilities nationwide.

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Agency Chief Backs Testing of Unproven Autism Treatment

The director of U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, pressured by the anxious parents of children with autism, is advocating testing chelation therapy as a treatment for the little-understood neurological disorder, theAssociated Pressreported Wednesday.

Chelation therapy aims to purge the body of heavy metals. Its use in children with autism is based on the unproven notion that mercury in the vaccines is responsible for cases of the disorder, theAPreported. With the exception of certain flu shots, mercury hasn't been used in pediatric vaccines since 2001.

NIMH director Dr. Thomas Insel told the wire service that he supports testing the therapy on autistic children. "So many moms have said, 'It's saved my kids,'" he said.

Several thousand children are already believed to be using the therapy, despite its fringe status. The drugs are relatively easy to get, some being marketed as dietary supplements, theAPreported.

Safety concerns over chelation have postponed the government testing for now, Insel said. One of the drugs used in the process, called DMSA, can have adverse effects including low white blood cell count and rashes. Research also has shown that the process may shift metals from elsewhere in the body to the central nervous system, theAPreported.

In adults, chelation has proven ineffective unless there are high concentrations of metals in the blood, the wire service said.

Austim describes a variety of disorders that affect victims' ability to communicate and interact. There is no proven cure.