I. GCS

In 1977, shortly after I became CEO at Toledo’s (not Columbus') old Riverside Hospital, the Chief Nursing Officer told me, “You’re meeting with Dr. Murphy today. Beware."

"Uh oh," I answered, "GCS*?” 

“Yes," she said, "He's got God Complex Syndrome…thinks he’s a god or maybe the God,” 

Back then, most doctors were men. GCS was rampant among the alpha male subset. Some showed Trump-like arrogance.

You know the symptoms: Bullying. Denial of mistakes. Never apologizing. The belief they were miracle workers. They knew they were not gods. But since they loved being treated like one, they demanded obedience and coveted praise. This last symptom suggested a short term cure I used too often. Genuine praise was never enough. I sometimes spent Fool’s gold.

II. Kings & Killers

Divinely immune, GCS doctors blamed their mistakes on caregivers. White capped nurses, required to stand whenever a doctor appeared, feared pointing out mistakes.

One example speaks everything. During my first year as CEO, the same CNO entered my office stricken. “Dr. Munoz, an anesthesiologist, killed a patient. He inserted the ventilator tube down a hysterectomy patient’s esophagus. He ignored the nurse’s warning. When the surgeon noticed it was too late.”

Although a lawyer I knew what everyone knows: This was classic medical malpractice. “We’ve got to tell the family and get this doctor suspended pending investigation,” I said.

“You’ve got to start with the medical staff. You know their “Code of Silence.” No doctor shall testify against another.”

She was right. The same Doctor Murphy, now Chief of Staff, told me, “No mistake here. The nurse is lying.”

The handling of this case is among my greatest regrets. I pushed aggressively for corrective action and the rarity back then of an admission to family.

It is an explanation, not an excuse to say that, 33 and a rookie, I lacked the strength to scale the Wall of Silence erected by the medical staff. Even my own doctor said, “You’re right, but you can’t beat this system.”

Like a southern jury after a lynching, the medical staff quickly exonerated the anesthesiologist. A board member said. “We’re not physicians, Erie. This is one nurse against many doctors…”

III. Remnants

44 years later, I stood looking at the remnants where Toledo’s Riverside once stood (Now raised.) The wrongly killed woman's ghost hovered above.

Remnants of GCS remain. Veteran caregivers recognize them. Tragically, the syndrome has fulminated down hospital hallways infecting another group: CEOs.

Desperate for affirmation, God-Complex men rarely distinguish fake praise. Mistakes, cynicism and even death can ensue.

I have sipped Praise’s addictive aphrodisiac too often. Arrogance forgets that this potion is reserved for the gods of myth, not us.

-Erie Chapman

*The God Complex is real. I coined it a syndrome.