Half of Doctors Who Sexually Abuse Patients Keep Their Licenses, Report Says

The review, conducted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, found that about half of those physicians were allowed to keep their licenses after abuse charges were substantiated.

"Personally, I am not surprised," attorney Adam Horowitz, who was interviewed for the AJC report, told Broadly. "But I do work in this area and I've seen a lot of women who have experienced similar behavior [by physicians]. So I wasn't surprised. I think the general public will be surprised, though."

Certainly the number of cases found and the range of victims—women, men, the elderly, children—is overwhelming. But even a quick web search of sexual abuse by physicians brings up a host of similar cases, including many in which physicians' punishments were seemingly minor.

Some of those cases include:

Clifford Merchant, a former emergency room doctor in Anchorage, Alaska, pled guilty to significantly reduced charges stemming from his abuse of four young girls. The Alaska _Dispatch News_ reported 31 felonies were dropped from the indictment. Merchant, who was 67 when he was arrested in 2014, was allowed to await court action outside of jail. But, according to court papers, Merchant had planned to hire a hitman to kill two of the victims and their families. Merchant could ultimately face more than 100 years in prison.

Robert Hadden, 57, a former gynecologist practicing on New York City's Upper East Side, was sentenced to a conditional discharge after he was accused of fondling and performing oral sex on six patients between 2011 and 2012, according to the New York Post. Hadden forfeited his medical license and registered as a sex offender as part of a plea agreement. He received no jail time and no probation during his March 2016 sentencing.

Jeffrey Abrams, a San Diego-based physician, was sentenced to a year of house arrest for a host of sexual crimes, according to the Washington Post. The judge declined to impose a lengthy jail sentence, saying Abrams had cancer and pled guilty to his crimes, which were exposed in 2015. His quick plea spared the victims from testifying in court. Abrams was stripped of his medical license and is now a registered sex offender.

Lawyer Adam Horowitz said the most disturbing part of such cases is that local health departments and other oversight authorities are hesitant to bring charges against physicians.

"Our society places a lot of trust in doctors," Horowitz said. "Oftentimes these cases get into he said, she said situations."

In his experience, Horowitz has seen physicians target vulnerable patients such as those with a history of trauma, addicts or those with legal problems. Although all the cases he has encountered involve female victims, physicians also abuse men.

Lisa McGiffert directs the Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project, which recently published an investigation on physician sexual abuse, drug abuse and medical errors in the US.

McGiffert agreed with the AJC report, which found that only a small percentage of physicians have serious issues. The problem, she said, is that physician-oversight systems seem to bury allegations of abuse.

"The oversight authorities don't weed those doctors out," she said. "Doctors are allowed to practice when, unbeknownst to patients, there are [complaints against them]. There is a significant disconnect between the public and the medical boards."

The American Medical Association did not immediately return Broadly's requests for comment.

The Consumers Union is among the organizations trying to streamline public access to physicians' records. In the meantime, McGiffert urged any patients to spend time researching physicians' backgrounds before going to them for care.

And, if abuse does occur, McGiffert stresses the importance of reporting it to the authorities.

"If you don't report it," she said, "nothing will be done."