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30 Michigan Health Professionals Punished for Sexual Misconduct in the Last Year

By Justin A. Hinkley
Lansing State Journal
July 12, 2018

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/watchdog/2018/07/12/larry-nassar-sexual-abuse-misconduct-30-michigan-doctors-professionals-punished/685260002/

Thirty health care professionals were disciplined by Michigan licensing boards for sexual assault or misconduct in the last year, a State Journal investigation found.

The Michigan Department of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs received 238 allegations of sexual misconduct by health professionals between 2011 and 2016, state reports show.

One of the offenders was Larry Nassar, the now infamous former Michigan State University doctor imprisoned after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting patients.

Other offenders include an athletic trainer who assaulted high school students and videotaped them in the nude, a massage therapist who inappropriately touched multiple clients over several years and an occupational therapist who tried to put his hand down the pants of a patient with a traumatic brain injury, according to the State Journal's review of disciplinary reports from May 2017 through May 2018.

The list of perpetrators includes men and women who committed crimes against patients and family members ranging from inappropriate relationships to rape.

The list shows Nassar was far from the fluke some defenders of MSU and USAG have said he was.

Larry Nassar looks down Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, on the third and final day of sentencing in Eaton County Court in Charlotte, Mich. [MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal] (Photo: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal)

"This is a widespread issue with systemic problems," said Dr. Meg Edison, a Grand Rapids-area pediatrician who has pushed for reforms as a delegate to the Michigan State Medical Society, a physicians group. "People are crazy if they think this is just a Michigan problem."

Indeed, thousands of doctors across the U.S. have been disciplined for sexual abuse since 1999, and weaknesses in every state allowed many of them to continue working, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found in a series of investigative stories published beginning in July 2016.

Most of the disciplined professionals named in this story could not be reachedfor comment.

The 30 disciplined health professionals identified by the State Journal does not include seven other MSU employees currently under investigation by state licensing boards. The accusations against six of those seven are unknown, but the seventh is Nassar's old boss, former MSU dean William Strampel, who is facing multiple criminal charges related to sexual misconduct. He's accused of sexually harassing and abusing female medical students in the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

With lessons learned from the Nassar case, Michigan officials said they hope to lead the nation in reforms that might stop future abusers. The Michigan delegation to the American Medical Association, for example, has convinced the AMA to examine how the group might throw its lobbying muscle behind reform efforts.

Michigan's delegation also encouraged the AMA to press many states, including Michigan, to close a loophole that discourages licensing boards from sharing information with law enforcement.

At the same time, the Michigan Legislature is advancing a long list of bills inspired by the Nassar case, including one that would require the state to permanently revoke the licenses of health professionals who commit sex crimes under the guise of medical treatment.

"We are very actively involved in this," said Dr. Mohammed Arsiwala, a Novi physician who chairs the state Board of Medicine. "When we have something of this magnitude come to light, we should work to make sure that something like this never happens again."

'Latitude and discretion'

Nassar's case drew particular attention because of the many opportunities MSU and USAG officials had to stop him but failed to do so. Complaints about Nassar's behavior date back to his earliest years as a physician, in the 1990s.

On that front, too, Nassar was not unique. At least two Michigan health professionals disciplined for sexual misconduct in the last year had a history of impropriety, the State Journal found.

Charles Huyck was a Sault Ste. Marie counselor who lost his license after state officials accused him of making sexual and harassing comments to at least one patient and to his coworkers, because he apparently interpreted benign comments as come-ons, records show. Five years prior, he'd been forced to give up his license in Nebraska after officials there expressed concerns about his mental stability, records show.

Huyck told the State Journal the allegations against him are "bogus" and claimed he wasn't given a chance to defend himself before the licensing board.

"There's no evidence," he said. "There's nothing there."

Brad Larner, a Saginaw marriage therapist, had his license suspended last summer after he had sex with one of his patients. Larner's license had been put on probationary status in 2016 after he propositioned a client.

It's common for the state to give professionals multiple strikes before kicking them out of their field. Across all occupations licensed by the state, nearly one in four of the people and businesses who lost their licenses last year had been disciplined at least once before, the State Journal found.

Michigan requires licensing boards to take action against certain types of wrongdoing. Sexual misconduct by health professionals requires an immediate suspension while LARA investigates, for example.

However, it's mostly up to licensing boards to mete out whatever punishment they see fit, state licensing officials said. The officials said board members' primary goal is protecting public safety, but they often come up with discipline they hope will deter professionals' bad behavior but let them get back to work.

"They look at any aggravating — or any mitigating circumstance, as well — to determine their sanctions," Cheryl Pezon, director of LARA's Bureau of Professional Licensing, told the State Journal. "The boards have that latitude and discretion to look at the circumstances of each case."

Especially in cases where police are not notified of an issue, licensing boards rely on the public — patients, fellow doctors, employers — to notify them of wrongdoing by a licensed professional, LARA spokesman Pardeep Toor said in an email to the State Journal. LARA staffers also monitor news reports to initiate investigations, he said.

Sometimes, things slip through the cracks.

In March 2017, for example, Clinton Township therapist Paul Cusumano was fired from his job after a patient — whom he was treating for self-esteem issues, substance abuse and past sexual abuse — reported him for talking about his own marital problems, asking her to go to Toronto with him, and forcibly kissing her. By the time state licensing investigators caught up to him, however, he was already working at another clinic, records show.

In June 2018, Cusumano's license was suspended for a month and put on probationary status for up to two years.

'It's been a hard lesson to learn'

The 30 professionals punished for sexual misconduct in Michigan in the last year represent a fraction of the nearly 200,000 health licensees overseen by the state.

But sex crimes can be especially disturbing when committed by doctors and others in whom patients place trust with the most intimate parts of their bodies and lives.

"He was a trusted doctor and what he did to me didn't make sense in my child's mind," Jessica Thomashow, who said Nassar abused her beginning at age 9, said at Nassar's January sentencing hearing in Lansing. "I didn't tell a soul, and I try to not to think about it, anymore, but my dream of becoming a sports medicine doctor ended that day, along with my happy and trusting self."

Edison, the Grand Rapids-area pediatrician, says medical settings can be especially risky for assault because perpetrators work in settings where they are often expected to put their hands on the bodies of disrobed patients.

"You are allowed that, unlike other professions, so there is that risk that someone could slowly start pushing boundaries and pushing boundaries until someone gets into a criminal action," she said.

Nassar, who molested more than 300 patients, athletes and others over 20 years, showed in the starkest terms the need for reforms, officials said.

"It's been a hard lesson to learn, but I think if we keep pushing, we'll be able to get some things done that might be able to help," Edison said.

Arsiwala, the medical board chairman who runs the state's largest urgent care clinic, says he has long instituted "a very strong chaperone policy" at his clinic that prevents physicians from performing sensitive procedures alone with patients. That should be happening everywhere, he said.

Within the three years before they renew their licenses, doctors must take at least one hour of training in medical ethics. There needs to be more, Ariswala said.

"We need to start with education early in medical schools," he said. "You need to start with education early in residency programs … It's very important for them to follow those policies, learn about ethics and boundaries, which is not taught, to be honest with you."

Edison said Michigan and other states need to require licensing boards to share information with police.

Currently, state policy discourages licensing board members from sharing their concerns directly with law enforcement, Toor, the LARA spokesman, said. That's to protect the privacy of professionals and complainants and to protect the professional's rights to appeal the board's decision, he said. However, LARA works closely with the Attorney General's Office during investigations and board members can ask LARA staff to share concerns with police, he said.

Finally, LARA officials said they're trying to educate the public about the licensing complaint process. Some problems may not rise to the level of a crime but can result in discipline against someone's license.

And that can help protect the public.

Take, for example, the case of David Lall.

The Berrien County nurse was convicted in 2006 of drugging and raping an emergency room patient. He was freed by a federal judge in 2014 because the judge said prosecutors had misused some evidence in trial.

Lall had lost his nursing license in 2008 but tried to get it back after he was freed from prison. Though he no longer had a criminal conviction on his record, the state last year used the facts laid out in the rape trial to permanently bar him from regaining his license.

"We are trying to encourage the public at all times that that's what we're for," Pezon, the licensing director, said.

Sexual misconduct in health care, by the numbers

30: Total number of health care professionals who were disciplined between May 2017 and May 2018 because of sexual assault or misconduct.

17: The number of known cases in which the victims of the 30 disciplined professionals were patients or clients. In two cases, the victims were not patients or clients, and in 11 cases the specifics of the case couldn't be determined from available public records.

238: The number of complaints of sexual misconduct by health care professionals received by the Michigan Department of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs between the 2011 and 2016 fiscal years.

Source: Michigan Department of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs.

 

 

 

 

 




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