‘DROPPED OR NEVER INVESTIGATED’
reporters. A new transparency webpage that details the type and number of complaints made each year was also launched as the board continues with various efforts to improve the way it handles sexual misconduct.
The board, Loucka said, has learned from its mistakes and she said it’s “a new day at the medical board.”
“(We’re) really making sure that we’re hitting all of the necessary steps along the way in a sexual misconduct case,” Loucka said. “So that when we get to the end ... whether we’re going forward or whether we have to close (it), we know everything that we need to have documented is documented.”
The medical board has for years focused on protecting accused physicians rather than seeking justice for patients, three former employees with a combined 20 years of experience told The Dispatch.
They asked not to be identified for fear of retribution by board officials.
The board employs 26 investigators who look into sexual misconduct, complaints of malpractice and prescribing violations, among a variety of other issues.
Although sexual misconduct investigations typically require weeks or months of time, the three former employees said investigators were consistently told to clear cases quickly. They typically juggled 10 to 15 cases at a time that varied in complexity and involved any number of issues ranging from sexual misconduct and drug abuse to minor paperwork problems.
While many medical board investigators have come from law enforcement, others did not and had little to no formal investigative training, the former employees told The Dispatch.
The medical board received 4,667 complaints covering a variety of issues against medical doctors, doctors of osteopathic medicine and doctors of podiatry in fiscal year 2022.
A synopsis of allegations against a doctor is made public when the medical board votes to cite one, schedules a hearing and issues a notice to a doctor. But not every allegation makes it to the public.
The medical board didn’t always investigate every sexual misconduct complaint it received, meaning the number of accusations against a doctor whose misdeeds were disclosed to the public may have been misleading, former employees said.
While former employees said the board was often reluctant to investigate sexual misconduct, there are a few situations that could outright prevent board action or an investigation. Those scenarios include but are not limited to the death of an accused physician or an uncooperative victim.
“The 250-figure found (by The Dispatch) may shock the public, but trust me, that is way, way low,” said one former investigator. “The board was scared to push those sexual misconduct cases. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of these serious allegations that were dropped or never investigated over the years.”
The medical board’s Loucka said she was concerned to hear former board employees thought investigations weren’t handled properly. She encouraged them to reach out if they’re aware of any case that should be re-examined.
But within the past 10 years, the board implemented policies that made it more difficult for sexual misconduct cases to be investigated.
One policy stated that investigators could drop a case if they felt unsafe pursuing it. Another required victims to meet an investigator at a neutral or public location instead of talking about what happened in the comfort of their homes.
“It was a problem for victims. Nobody wants to talk about sexual assault at a Panera Bread,” a former board employee said. “The investigators were entirely justified in saying they felt they were hamstrung by the policy.”
Discipline for doctors has varied widely over the years.
Of the 256 doctors a Dispatch analysis found, 120 had their licenses permanently revoked and 95 faced suspensions for various amounts of time. There were at least 29 instances where doctors who had their licenses revoked or suspended were issued a “stay” that shortened the period they were prohibited from practicing.
At least 73 doctors entered into a “consent agreement” with the board, which allows them to negotiate the terms of their discipline and the details of accusations that are made public.
“I left because I wasn’t doing justice by anyone,” said a former investigator. “It was clear to me the board was protecting their own, so I had to get out . ... I couldn’t look myself in the mirror anymore knowing we weren’t doing what we should have been doing to protect the public.”
The Dispatch’s findings show that Strauss, who died by suicide in 2005, was not alone in his abuse of patients.
As an Ohio State student, Steve Snyder-hill went to see Strauss in the mid-1990s for a lump on his chest and received an unnecessary genital exam from the doctor.
“I can’t say that I’m surprised, unfortunately,” Snyder-hill said of The Dispatch’s findings about Ohio doctors and sexual misconduct.
The medical board became aware of alleged misconduct by Strauss in 1996.
But after taking initial steps to gather patient records and take action against Strauss’ medical license, the investigation inexplicably sat inactive for months. It was eventually closed in 2002, with no action ever taken.
When Snyder-hill reported Strauss to Ohio State administrators in the 1990s, he said thenstudent health services director Dr. Ted Grace told him he never received a complaint about Strauss before. In fact, Grace was actually made aware of a similar complaint about Strauss from another student days earlier, issued him a warning and implemented a chaperone policy for his visits with male patients, according to an investigative report from the law firm Perkins Coie that Ohio State commissioned.
After Strauss’ abuse was uncovered in 2018, Snyder-hill, now 52, told the medical board that Grace knew about the accusation and failed to report it. Grace agreed to give up his license shortly before a board hearing.
Grace did not return calls from The Dispatch. In 2019, he told The Southern Illinoisan student newspaper that Perkins Coie investigators misrepresented him and that he did “the best I could,” in handling the Strauss matter.
Snyder-hill said he’s dismayed by the inconsistencies in the medical board’s handling of complaints, especially in regards to sexual misconduct.
Snyder-hill credited the board for taking action against Grace. Still, he said he sometimes fears he was “used as a pawn” by state leaders to help pin the blame for Strauss’ abuse on someone still alive.
While Snyder-hill understands the board must weigh protecting accusers and doctors, he said the board should do so by “listening first, and not judging and gaslighting.”