Patients are responsible for the majority of the 33 percent of hospital employees who claim to have been sexually harassed, according to a survey released Thursday by an organization of hospital managers.
The survey, conducted last fall on 882 people from 20 hospitals in the Kanto region, shows that workers were most often harassed by patients, followed by doctors, fellow workers, and lastly, their superiors.
Female employees are frequently touched by patients as they are take their temperatures, while harassment by doctors and superiors mainly takes the form of questions about marriage and having children, the survey says.
The survey will officially be made public today at the start of a meeting in Fukuoka of the All Japan Hospital Association.