Lax Medical Regulations Harm Patients
Self-regulation isn't addressing physician sexual assault.
CW: This post discusses sexual assault by physicians.
4 Minute Read
I opened my email this morning to two stories of patients who were sexually assaulted by their physicians.
I wish this were a surprise, but this is a long standing issue in medicine.
Once you start looking physician sexual assault in the news, you can’t help but see the potpourri of physicians who assault the people they are supposed to care for.Gynecologist Robert Hadden, urologist Zvi Levran, neurologist Ricardo Cruciani are just a few recent physicians found to have violated their patients.
But medical boards, policy makers, and other governing bodies fail to protect the public from these predators.
Today’s tales of physician misconduct:
Tort reform shields predator physicians: ProPublica’s Big Story covers ninety-four women who allege a Utah Ob/Gyn sexually assaulted them and a judge who threw out the case.
Loopholes for predators: Men Yell At Me’s
shows how a loophole in Iowa’s physician reporting requirements allows perpetrators to keep previous criminal charges off their records.We all (including physicians like me) want to believe that medical licensing boards and legal systems will do what it takes to keep patients safe from physician harm.
Isn’t that the entire reason for their existence?
Apparently not.
What do these two stories show us about how the law and medical regulation fail patients?
Utah’s Tort Reform Protects Docs
In Utah, 94 women brought sexual assault claims against Ob/Gyn Dr. David Broadbent, but the judge threw the case out. His argument? He says this is about medical practice, not sexual assault. This distinction is a major blow against victims because the legal system is much nicer to doctors than other people.
Tort reforms in Utah mean that even if survivors “win” their case, a judge will be required to limit monetary awards. Additionally, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice is only 2 years, meaning many of the women in the suit who were assaulted over the physicians 40+ year career, were assaulted too long ago to make a claim now.
To treat these violations as distinct demonstrates a lack of understanding of sexual assault AND of medical practice. (see my Venn diagram above) Like other forms of acquaintance rape, physicians are people patient's should expect to be able to trust, so the harm is significant. This Utah’s judge’s approach means people assaulted by physicians will be excluded from supports that any other sexual assault survivor in Utah might be afforded.
Power imbalance between patients and physicians facilitate sexual assault. This is even more apparent when perpetrators prey on children and young adults. We should be addressing sexual assault by physicians swiftly and harshly, not like other forms of malpractice.
Iowa
's reporting addresses the Iowa Medical Board's failure to address accusations against Dr. Lynn Lindaman, now an Iowa orthopedist. In 1976, before Lindaman attended medical school, he worked at a gymnastics summer camp as a trainer, where he was accused of assaulting a 13-year-old camper. Reporting loopholes meant that Lindaman has never been required to report his deferred judgement in the case (after probation, the court sealed the record).Medical boards have considerable power to sanction physicians. But sanctions are reactionary, rather than preventative. A recent study matched DNA samples from rape kits samples in CODIS and found alarmingly high rates of repeat sexual offenders (39.7% of unique and identifiable perpetrators). Medical boards are fooling themselves if they think short term counseling and monitoring will be sufficient to protect the public.
We need to know about every single arrest and legal case against physicians. Medical boards need to understand the high risk serial sexual predators pose to patients.
Still forgiven
Back in 2019, I wrote about physician sexual assault in the American Journal of Bioethics:
“Yet while sexual assault by physicians should never happen, it is nowhere near rare enough. The lack of clearly defined consequences for physicians who violate such obvious norms demonstrates a lack of sufficient safeguards to protect patients and maintain public trust.”
In their report “Still Forgiven” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution meticulously reported on 450 cases of reported sexual misconduct between 2016 and 2017. “Even some doctors criminally convicted are back in practice, demonstrating that a system that forgives doctors.” Medical boards and regulators continue to fail to prevent this egregious harm.
Major reforms are needed throughout medical regulation, especially around physician sexual misconduct.
As always, thanks for reading.
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Be Well,
Dr. Alyssa Burgart
