CLEVELAND (OH)
USA Today
January 5, 2018
By Jayne O’Donnell
The Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation’s largest and most renowned hospitals, knew of at least two cases in which one of its surgeons was accused of raping patients but kept him on the staff while reaching a confidential settlement, a USA TODAY investigation has found.
Ryan Williams, a colorectal surgeon accused in police reports by two women of anally raping them in 2008 and 2009, left Cleveland Clinic last summer for another hospital, which placed him on leave after learning of the complaints against him.
As prominent men in government, the judiciary and entertainment lose their jobs for varied forms of sexual harassment, doctors accused of sexual assaults of patients are regularly unaffected professionally or publicly.
But the same types of secret settlements criticized for their role in sex abuse and harassment cases from Hollywood to Capitol Hill are also frequent in health care. Doctors and hospitals worried about their public image feel like, “If I can’t get silence what’s in it for me?,” says Jim Hopper, a clinical psychologist and expert witness in cases involving institutions’ treatment of patients.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.