Employment Discrimination and Sexual Harassment in Healthcare (Part II)

Just as I posted the other day about sexual harassment and discrimination by medical workers/ entities against medical workers, and wondered aloud why this seems to be an ineradicable situation, I came across a few more examples which underscore the frequency of such claims.

I have written a lot in the past about harassment of vulnerable workers, and the misogyny and abuse of vulnerable women.   I wrote earlier:

From farm to Valley, from medical school to morgue, and from diner to library, ‘particularly vulnerable’ employees are subjected to sexual harassment – ‘particularly vulnerable’ when those in ‘a position of power’ are able to ‘leverage’ that position to exploit them.

Put more simply: disparate power = vulnerable employees.

That hasn’t changed.

A recent BBC report from the UK involves a male doctor “who inappropriately touched two junior female colleagues [and] has been struck off the medical register.” The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), which rules on cases brought against doctors, “found that he had ‘brushed against’ the breast of one of the complainants … with his arm and hand multiple times while grabbing papers and opening a door. …and ‘hugged her and kissed her on the cheek, all without asking her’ in a car park at the end of their shift. …”

This same doctor “had previously been suspended for 10 months after he behaved in ‘a sexually motivated manner’ towards three female colleagues between 2013 and 2015.  He was handed a five-year restraining order in relation to one of the doctors in September 2020. …”

And still he persisted … unchecked.  Until this time.

In a second matter, the EEOC, which investigated a nursing facility in the state of Washington announced that it had settled the matter with the facility agreeing to “pay monetary damages, revise its non-discrimination policies, conduct employee training, and provide additional training to managers and staff involved in the investigation of employee complaints of discrimination and harassment.”

What was the claim?

A former supervisor alleged that “after disclosing their gender identity and pronouns to their employer, managers and staff persisted in repeatedly and intentionally referring to them using pronouns inconsistent with their gender identity. … the alleged sex-based harassment went on for more than a six-month period and … despite receiving complaints about and objections to the harassment, [the facility] failed to act appropriately.”

Finally, it was reported that a nurse working in a nursing home for over 20 years filed a complaint against it for disability discrimination.  Apparently, she was “diagnosed with endometrial cancer and subsequently underwent treatment that included chemotherapy and surgery [and] [h]er medical provider indicated that she would need ongoing letrozole therapy and surveillance for five years.”

She took FMLA leave to undergo treatment, had certain medical restrictions, and asked for additional medical leave “as an accommodation due to her ongoing cancer treatment.” She was allegedly denied this leave and was fired the next day, with her termination letter noting that she “had exhausted her FMLA leave and [the facility was] unable to continue accommodating her.”

This is, of course, just an initial claim and her allegations are just that … allegations.  But I raise this case, and all of the others, simply to point out what seems to be a daily flood of claims of harassment and/or discrimination in the healthcare field.