A toxic workplace

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Toxic.

That's how a new report describes the workplace culture at Nanaimo Regional Hospital.

Island Health hired the U.S.-based Vector Group to prepare the report. The company surveyed 473 workers on issues such as routine policy, procedures and attitudes at the hospital.

"From all indications Nanaimo Regional General Hospital is failing significantly in regard to managing people," the report says, adding the hospital is "maintaining an atmosphere of fear, bullying, intimidation, retaliation and censure that prevents people from raising questions, issues or concerns."

The report further states there is  a feeling promotions and recruitment are based on nepotism. Advancement is about who you know, not what you know.

Many complaints within the hospital centre around the 2016 rollout of the iHealth system. A doctor was suspended for one day for protesting the new record keeping system.

A number of people surveyed said they have gone so far as to tell family and friends to go somewhere else if they get sick.

"In Vector Group’s collective opinion the organizational culture is past the 'tipping point.' The simple act of continuing with daily operations exacerbates the toxicity of the culture," a summary reads. "This situation is not sustainable and will, in due course, lead to some form of self-destruction."

CTV has contacted Island Health for comment.

–files from CTV Vancouver Island