Here's a good one!

Received a complaint from a young lady who had a procedure performed in one of our medical offices. The procedure involves disrobing from the waist up and then a towel is placed over the strategic areas. Towel is pulled down into a "V" in the front, gel applied and an ultrasound like procedure performed. There is no need for any type of exposure other than what has been described.

The patient (an 18 yera old) claims that the tech(male) pulled the towel from across one of her breasts and left her exposed for about 10 minutes. Young lady said she started feeling very uncomfortable and that something didn't feel right to her and she reached down and covered herself. Her father actually made the initial call to complain and he was livid and wants something done with this person.

I talked with the tech and he adamantly denies that the patient was exposed at any time.

To further complicate matters,I understand that 7 or 8 years ago, a patient complained about the same thing. This was before my tenure as HR Director and there is nothing documented in his file concerning this incident. Evidently, it was a big deal and the patient left the practice over this.

My question is....who do you believe? The young lady is very credible and I cannot understand why she would make this allegation if it was not true. She does not know this tech, so there is no personal connection here. The tech adamantly denies that anything went on and there was no exposure.

This is a 15 year employee and I want to proceed very carefully before we decide to terminate.

Comments

  • 18 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • is there any possibility of using a female tech??

    also, just recently went to doctor for a procedure and they have a sign posted in the waiting room "if you wish to have a female staff member or a clinical member present during your examination, please let us know immediately".

    perhaps this would satisfy everyone.

    regards


  • A medical practice is far different than the office atmosphere where most of us HR people live. In the office, disrobing is out of the question but in medical practice, it is standard operating procedure. You should assure the person complaining that your office tries to take all measures to assure the modesty of patients but with the various medical procedures and activities that must take place in a busy office, that you cannot absolutely guarantee that a slip or mistake of some kind would never happen. Tell them that you will revisit training and try to make sure that the modesty of all patients is respected. Thank them for their complaint and tell them that is most important to you that issues of this nature can be brought to your attention to improve the quality of your care. As far as the employee, bring them in and investigate. Get their side of the story. Make very sure that the complaint is documented in their file. To me, the next such complaint would be the finish.
  • If the procedure did not include the breast, why was the woman required by the male tech to remove her bra and cover with a towel?

  • This is a classic "he said, she said" and needs to be investigated; especially since there seems to be some "smoke" in this past. Investigating hs/ss's requires alot of back and forth as you piece together the picture and gradually expose the truth from the lies. Hopefully, the patient will be up to this intrusion. A hopping mad parent is trouble and you must do your due diligence.
  • At a SHRM Labor Law conference, it seemed like half the cases discussed involved breasts.

    This is a tough one, Rockie. Of course the tech is going to lie. That's a given. I'd be uncomfortable dismissing the tech because of one incident but I would certainly document it and make it clear that any future allegations would be immediate terms.

    I would also take great lengths to make sure the girl's parents feel like the matter was handled seriously. They may not be satisfied with the results of your investigation. If you don't fire the tech, you are basically saying their daughter is a liar.

    Last year, my wife took our 9 year old to the hospital to have a persistent cough looked at. To her suprise, the doctor was very obviously a man dressed as a woman with bright red hair, sequin heels, and a very affected feminine manner.

    Worse, he gave our daughter a very cursory examination and spent more time brushing wisps of hair out of his face.

    I sent a letter of complaint to the head of the hospital, the board chair, the president of the health system, and the chief religious officer (its a Catholic hospital). As you can imagine, I recieved a very polite response about "diversity".

    I know I may sound backward but I am not ready to have my 9 year old examined by a man in drag.
  • Rockie,

    In general, I would agree with WT's suggestion-- (s)he presents on-the-whole a very appropriate response I think.

    But I would offer a couple of caveats/additional thoughts on this.

    First, WT is absolutely right that a medical practice presents very different circumstances from those most of us work in. And it seems to me that the poor tech is taking a lot of heat in this thread, before all the facts are in. The info in the system about his prior "offense" is basically hearsay (or worse, gossip) at this point, unless some of the current staff actually witnessed the earlier incident-- since nothing was documented at the time. So I think you'd be on shaky ground to base termination of the tech partly on the prior incident.

    Absolutely, investigate. Give the tech an opportunity to respond to the accusation. But he's obviously working in a very sensitive situation in your practice....and I would think some misunderstandings are almost assured to occur, regardless of how careful and sensitive he might be. BTW, I certainly CAN imagine situations where the patient might lie about such an incident (i.e., a patient who was just overly sensitive about the procedure; or worse, a patient who was flirting with the tech, didn't feel her flirtations were responded to as she wanted, and is now lashing out at the tech... basically the possibilities run the whole range here).

    On patient's age: you state she's 18 y.o. Therefore she's an adult...and responsible for herself. Her parents may be livid. But even if she was actually abused, and has good reason to press a complaint against the tech, her parents would have no legal standing to pursue this through the courts. It would be on her to pursue the complaint. So I would recommend paying attention to the patient, but not (or at least very little) to her parents.

    Finally, if the tech in question has worked for you for more than 7 yrs, and this is the first DOCUMENTED incident in which he's been involved, that seems to me a pretty GOOD record-- particularly considering the sensitivity of the procedure he's required to carry out.


  • ROCKIE: This is a most serious incident, but "he said she said" is most likely where your investigation will end up! I recommend a quick change in policy to make it a corporate rule that there will be no examination of body parts without a nurse present to record the physician's thoughts and findings.

    At my last physicial exam, the staff physician was a female general practice doctor; as she was putting on her rubber gloves she asked me if I wanted a witness, "if not drop your pants and underwear". My response was to drop my pants and underwear and ready myself for the prostate exam. If this information is posted or addressed then the company position has got to be with the physician. I could have had a witness, but I did not request one. If the information is posted for the public to read and appropriately, respon, then, you must accept the fact that there is a disagreement over the issues, but unless you can prove some other thin happened than the physician's side of the story, you must support the company and it's staff. The angry father can go do, whatever he feels like doing and that includes taking his business to some other location.

    I would not terminate the employee, but I would certainly put into place a system of witnesses in any exam room where there is a male and female potential issue over privacy matters. I would also make sure that this complaint has not fallen on death ears. Evidently, that might have happened before, but no proof of any smoking gun. Move on and let the management team supervise this individual and take the appropriate actions required.

    PORK

  • >
    >At my last physicial exam, the staff physician
    >was a female general practice doctor; as she was
    >putting on her rubber gloves she asked me if I
    >wanted a witness, "if not drop your pants and
    >underwear". My response was to drop my pants
    >and underwear and ready myself for the prostate
    >exam. If this information is posted or
    >addressed then the company position has got to
    >be with the physician. I could have had a
    >witness, but I did not request one.

    I think the last thing I would want during a prostate exam is someone else watching.
  • Just a random thought. Most of us in this forum are well over 18 and have been through the various indignities inflicted by medical practice and personnel. They take away our clothing, they look down us, they look up us, and in general, our modesty is out the window. We are just grateful if they come alone instead of bringing two or three students to observe. At the tender age of 18, I had a good many illusions about how life works or should work. Who would ever think that to medical personnel we are only a job, a heart, liver, or lung issue. When we leave, another poor naked or half dressed soul will take our place on the examination table. At 18, and in the mind of the typical 18 year old, all the boys are looking. If a breast is exposed, how could the tech possibly NOT be looking?
  • Thats a good point, WT. At the very least the ten minutes of exposure was thoughtless, unnecessary, and innappropriate.

    I find its a constant struggle to remind the medical industry that WE ARE THEIR CUSTOMERS and that means we can go elsewhere if we are not treated well.
  • >Who would ever think that to medical personnel
    >we are only a job, a heart, liver, or lung
    >issue.

    I think I'd prefer to be treated by a medical professional who viewed me as an object rather than to cater to my supposed sensibilities and vulnerable state of mind (while sick and/or naked). Get your business done and keep your and my personality quirks out of the examination; I'm not here to get my ego stroked.

  • Atrimble,

    What I was trying to do in my post is contrast the state of mind of an 18 year old girl (the subject of this thread) to the states of mind of the participants of this forum. Chances are pretty good that the 18 year old (having probably spent more years of her life not having breasts than having them) and being much newer to the male / female dynamic than most members of this forum, takes a different point of view than we do. Unless we have been incredibly lucky and healthy, we have been through some or many medical procedures. I presume we are older, hopefully wiser, and we realize that healthcare professionals, in general, look right past our naked bodies to focus on the problem or procedure at hand. Not only are they not "looking" at us, they most likely forget all about us as soon as we go out the door. However, sometimes in order to understand another person and their issue, it is most helpful to try to understand their frame of mind and put yourself in their shoes.
  • WT, I agree that those of us in HR really do have to put ourselves in another's shoes to get a fuller picture of an issue. Heaven forefend - we're humans with subjective views, too! My personal comments above should have been kept personal and not inserted as a hijack of the thread. I apologize.

    Though I now feel compelled to add another point: this girl has now been through the dehumanizing medical process that most of us older (and wiser? (:| ) folks have been through. Her daddy needs to chalk it all up to "growing pains" after receiving the aforementioned assurance that the indicent has been investigated and documented.
  • Atrimble,

    Maybe somebody should tell the girl that in addition to wearing clean underwear (mom always said that you never know when you may have to go to the hospital), that you should be mentally prepared to have medical personnel see various body parts you have always considered private. Since it is possible or likely that she will have a baby some day, she needs to learn this basic fact.

    But seriously, I am not at all upset by your post. All of us in the forum need to remain friends.
  • That was the nicest argument I've ever seen (read). I had to read it three times to figure out what you were arguing about. I'm still not sure.
  • First of all, if you had a problem with a male tech ogling/fondling or otherwise harassing female patients, you would hear about it more than once or twice in 7-8 years. I know that we were always reminding our staff to be sensitive to the modesty of their patients, but some times and some days, with the mutilated and bleeding coming through the doors, here is so much activity that the patient really needs to take more responsibility. In this case, if the girl felt exposed, it was her responsibility to cover up. Yes, it would have been helpful if the tech had been more sensitive to her discomfort, but I'm betting he was focused on doing his job and not on her body parts. Don't know, wasn't there; just speaking from my own first-hand experience of fielding these types of compliants on a daily basis when I was working in a hospital. And oh, don't get me started on the irrational parent (or family member) who "wants something done" just because "precious" said it was what it was, without any consideration to maybe, just maybe, it was a very awkard thing for her by itself, then compound it with the care giver being a guy, and as a young, emotional, and immature girl, it seemed like more than it was. Most times the health professional isn't even seeing what they're looking at. Forgive the vent, but I've dealt with similar situations blown completely out of proportion and very good, professional, caring health care workers were hurt and demoralized because of it. Without knowing the facts and the people involved, my recommendation would be to simply tell the tech about the call and the perception; remind him how important it is to be careful and sensitive to modesty; protect your employees when possible by having a witness in the room when its male/female interactions, and finally, tell "daddy" that your facility will thoroughly investigate the situation, and if necessary take appropriate action. You don't owe him any other explanation than that.
  • Was the tech "working on her" during this 10 minutes she claims she was "undressed" or was he sitting in a corner looking at her or did he leave the room?
    I take it that the patient isn't an employee but a client?
    I like the idea of the sign on the door to put the ball in the patient's court. Did she say anything about this before she left the office. Is this the only person she saw while there?
    Another thought is for the tech, whether male or female describe to the patient what they are going to do before they do it. (I am going to move the towel down in the middle a little in order to get a good picture" or whatever. Maybe the tech didn't uncover her but she thought he did. (If she is flat on her back, I am not sure how she would definitely know. It would be hard to see, unless you sat up. She may doing this on "feel" only and what she felt wasn't what actually happened. I would sit with the staff to try to deterimine ways that you can eliminate this problem. I noticed this last time my OBGYN had his nurse "standing" in the corner really doing nothing during his exam. This is the first time he has done that in mucho years.
    I know having 2 people in the room is too expenisve a thing, but may be worth thinking about.
    I would believe the employee, at least the first time. But maybe write something up in his file that there was a complaint, but a he said she said thing.
    E Wart
  • Thanks for all your comments. I am still waiting for the written statement from the young lady before going forward. I have to wonder how truly "outraged" the father was about this.

    I have found out this past week the tech was going around telling all his co-workers about the incident. This, in itself, makes me question his lack of good judgment as well as common sense.

    If I don't receive the statement, then I will just document the "incident" for the file. I have her verbal statement that I have transcribed for the file, which, as you might guess, is opposite of what the tech said happened.

    We are putting a privacy policy into place to hopefully, alleviate these incidents in the future.


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