Tri-Cities hospital sued for allegedly ignoring complaints of doctor sexual abuse

Yahoo

2 days ago

Two lawsuits have been filed against Kadlec Regional Medical Center, accusing it of not taking reasonable steps to protect patients from alleged sexual abuse by one of its physicians, Dr. Mark Mulholland.
Mulholland already has been charged with unprofessional conduct by the Washington Medical Commission over accusations of inappropriate comments and behavior toward women at the Richland Kadlec obstetrics and gynecology clinic.
Any response, if any, by Mulholland to the Washington Medical Commission charges has not been made public.
The lawsuits filed in Washington's King County Superior Court on Tuesday, July 29, name as defendants: Kadlec; Providence Health & Services, with which Kadlec is affiliated; and Kadlec Clinic — Associated Physicians for Women, where Mulholland worked.
One suit filed by a patient who was treated by the doctor in June 2023 alleges Mulholland sexually abused her in June 2023.
He made sexually grotesque comments to her, pressed her down on the examination table, penetrated her with his fingers in a sexual manner and refused to remove his fingers despite her asking him to multiple times, according to allegations in the lawsuit filed by the law firm Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala of Seattle.
She also filed a complaint with the Washington Medical Commission earlier this month, according to the law firm. 'Dr. Mulholland behaved in a manner that made me feel deeply violated and unsafe,' said the complaint.
Her husband and 3-year-old daughter were with her in the examination room, but had been told to sit where they could not see what the doctor was doing, according to the complaint. When the doctor left the room the patient raised a concern with her husband, and they discussed Mulholland again when they got in the car.
'We're both confused ... about what we had just experienced,' the complaint said. 'I felt like I was sexually assaulted but I tried to rationalize it because he's a doctor.'
The patient in the other lawsuit accuses him of making sexually inappropriate comments, inappropriately touching her and penetrating her with his fingers in a sexual manner in January 2023, according to the other lawsuit.
Both lawsuits assert that the alleged sexual abuse served no medical purpose.
Mulholland could not be reached Tuesday about the allegations. Information on who his attorney is was not immediately available.
Providence, Kadlec and the Kadlec clinic have received multiple complaints about Mulholland, but 'rationalized, normalized and minimized these complaints, resulting in patient and staff complaints being dismissed and not taken seriously,' according to both lawsuits.
Kadlec said it was unable to comment on pending litigation and said that Mulholland, 58, is not currently practicing at its clinic.
He. became a member of the Kadlec medical staff in late 1999, the year he was licensed to practice medicine in Washington state.
Both suits listed an example from 2017, alleging that a patient complained to a nurse at Kadlec that Mulholland did an internal exam without gloves on and restrained her from getting up by pressing down on her with one hand. Later, he grabbed the inner part of her thigh and told her to relax, according to the lawsuits.
In another example, the lawsuits allege that in June 2023 that a patient complained to a doctor at the clinic that Mulholland made sexual comments to her and performed internal exams with such force that she bled for several days.
Complaints against Mulholland were disregarded to conceal the danger Mulholland allegedly posed to patients, so he could continue working at the Kadlec clinic, the lawsuits allege.
'Unfortunately, this is part of a pattern we've seen time and again — people in positions of immense trust and power abusing others at their most vulnerable, while the institutions sworn to protect them fail to act,' said Mallory Allen, a law firm partner, in the firm's announcement of the lawsuits.
Both women who filed lawsuits Tuesday suffered severe emotional and psychological distress and personal physical injury, according to the lawsuits.
They legally claim negligence, discrimination based on gender and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit does not say how much they are seeking in damages.
WA Medical Commission charges
The Washington Medical Commission on April 29 charged Mulholland with unprofessional conduct, alleging he lacked appropriate boundaries with patients.
'Respondent has made inappropriate comments about patients' physical appearances, including body shaming patients who were overweight and making implied sexual comments about patients' vaginas,' the Washington Medical Commission said in a statement of charges released by the Washington state Department of Health.
He is accused of pulling a patient's pants down without asking for permission during a bedside ultrasound and not draping the patient, according to the statement of charges.
He also is accused of making inappropriate comments toward female staff, such as commenting on their weight, asking them to show him their breasts or inquiring about whether they planned to cheat on their husbands.
'Respondent's behaviors toward patients and staff have often been rationalized, normalized and minimized, resulting in patient and staff complaints being dismissed and not taken seriously,' alleges the statement of charges.
The state document listed reports it investigated of three patients of Mulholland who described medical appointments in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
A Kennewick law firm, Tamaki Law, also is investigating claims regarding Mulholland but has not filed a lawsuit.