A physician is charged with sexual misconduct after a vaginal speculum exam. Just get a chaperone in the room and save yourself the trouble:
After investigation and weeks of anxiety, I’ve now been exonerated of this charge. So why not forget about it? But I believe this case shows how dangerous it is to practice medicine these days. Some doctors tell me they no longer examine women’s breasts for fear of being charged with sexual misconduct. It’s a dangerous approach as malignancies will be missed. Other physicians, for the same reason, do not conduct a vaginal examination and serious problems may go undetected.Let’s assume I had been a young doctor with a wife and young family who had just opened a medical office in a small town. You can bet your last dollar that the word would have quickly spread that Doctor X had been accused of sexual misconduct. Can you imagine the devastation that would cause?
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“Some doctors tell me they no longer examine women’s breasts for fear of being charged with sexual misconduct. It’s a dangerous approach as malignancies will be missed.”
There is an old saying that is applicable here. “Tough titty said the cat to the kitty when the milk ran dry.” This is the only sane approach to dealing with the “sexual misconduct” claims in which a claim is enough for the sheeple to assume guilt. It is a bit of a Catch-22. If enough providers engage in this practice, one could at least argue that the practice was within the course and scope of that followed in the local community when dealing with the inevitable legal action that will follow from the policy.
‘We do what’s right for kids’ the sarcastic motto at my children’s hospital when things are not done the best because of systems issues.
I won’t enter a patient room without a parent present. Getting a nurse is largely out of the question because 1) they are overworked, and 2) I’m not going to advertise my concerns. If your kid is alone then they stay alone. Sorry, but extending that human element is just too risky.
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