"Why Didn't Anyone Stop Dr. Hardy?" is the featured headline on the front page of today's Boston Globe. It's accompanied by the photo of the back of the head of a woman who complained about Dr. Hardy to the Massachusetts medical board in 2004. She has her hand against her cheek with a watch showing prominently, suggesting the passage of time over which numerous complaints were made about Hardy, with no action being taken. What follows is a summary of the article and my analysis of the key issues:
If the patients' complaints are true, Dr. Hardy has malpracticed, disgraced his profession, and possibly committed felonious assault. Sadly, we know that some physicians betray their patients' trust and professional responsibilities in the way Hardy apparently did. In the past, however, it was not uncommon for an offending physician's denial to be believed, especially when the physician was a "respectable" Caucasian with top drawer credentials like Hardy. When colleagues and medical boards acted this way they were adding "system level injury" to the "direct injury" done by the abusive physician.
But in addition to bad things being done to patients by individual physicians, unresponsive colleagues and inactive medical boards, there are symmetrical risks of harm being done to "innocent" physicians. 40 years ago a young patient of mine with mild developmental disability was angry when I cancelled an appointment. She complained to the medical board that I had molested her. I had hurt her feelings, but that's not what she said to the board. By the time the board contacted me my patient and I had rescheduled the appointment and we were once again on good terms. I was too naive at the time to recognize how serious a complaint to the board could be. My patient had had a brief adolescent snit, but just as a malicious physician may lie about his offenses, a malicious patient may fabricate an accusation. When a board or the court of public opinion finds an "innocent" physician "guilty," a severe harm is done to the physician.
I don't see any way of ensuring the right answer to these "bad vs bad" conflicts. I know that patients have been harmed by having their reports of abuse disbelieved. But I'm sure that exemplary physicians have, on occasion, been harmed by complaints based on misunderstanding or malicious intent. Years ago, when I was in charge of a medical facility, a female patient complained that her male physician had been masturbating during an appointment. I met with the physician to take up the complaint. He said that perhaps his underwear had twisted around his testicles and that he readjusted his clothing and his anatomy via his pocket. (Male readers have probably experienced the underwear problem.) I believed him, and explained what I thought had happened to the patient. She seemed to accept my interpretation, and that was the sole complaint ever received about the physician. But stranger things have happened than what the patient initially alleged. While I believe I got the situation right, a crystal ball might tell us that the physician lied and I unwittingly exonerated him and did an injury to the patient.
The excellent reporting done by the Boston Globe gives some guidance about how the health system and medical profession can handle these "bad v bad" conflicts better. Colleagues need to follow up on stories they hear from patients or rumors. At the very least this means talking directly with the physician in question. This isn't easy, but it's clearly the right thing to do. It didn't happen early enough with Dr. Hardy. If the physician is "guilty" it puts him or her on notice that the medical community is vigilant. At best the physician will say "I made a terrible mistake and I need to get help..." But even if the physician lies in a plausible manner, knowing that others are concerned will diminish the likelihood of repeat offenses.And if the accused physician is "innocent" he or she will be embarrassed or appalled, but it's better not to have unchallenged rumors circulating.
It's a privilege to be allowed to become part of patients' lives in the intimate way that medical care involves. But that very intimacy creates risks - primarily for patients but also for physicians. We need our health system to protect patients from exploitation and injury without making physicians so wary about accusations that they overly constrain their human warmth and caring.
Not an easy task!
The story went back to his undergraduate days at Princeton. Both male and female classmates believed he had committed sexual assaults. But this was the 1970s, before the kind of focus on sexual misconduct that universities now apply. Hardy was president of the premedical society and even, for a time, a counselor in a sexual education program. A male classmate was concerned enough to send anonymous letters to medical schools warning that Hardy was "a person of poor character." Hardy trained at Cincinnati, Stanford and Harvard, becoming a gynecologist and fertility specialist.
In 1999 a woman reported to the gynecologist who had referred her to Hardy that Hardy has massaged her clitoris, saying he needed to get her "uterus to contract." She asked the gynecologist - was this a normal medical procedure? Her gynecologist said it was not, but apparently did not report Hardy to the medical board. In 2004 the patient featured in the article reported Hardy to the medical board, complaining that her clitoral area was raw and swollen after a surgical procedure. Hardy wrote a three page defense. The board took no action against him, but it did make a record of the complaint.
In 2011 Hardy told a South Asian patient that women from her country were "clueless about sex," and that being brought to orgasm by his massaging her clitoris would help her get pregnant. When this woman ultimately went to the Massachusetts medical board the board conducted an extensive examination - including interviewing classmates from Princeton - leading to Dr. Hardy's surrendering his medical license, and promising never to seek to be licensed in any other state. Dr. Hardy now lives in Thailand with his second wife and their young children.In medical ethics classes we typically work with examples of "good v good" conflicts, as when respecting the patient's choices ("respecting autonomy") conflicts with the patient's health ("practicing beneficence"). I interpret the history of Dr. Hardy's case as the opposite - a "bad v bad" conflict.
If the patients' complaints are true, Dr. Hardy has malpracticed, disgraced his profession, and possibly committed felonious assault. Sadly, we know that some physicians betray their patients' trust and professional responsibilities in the way Hardy apparently did. In the past, however, it was not uncommon for an offending physician's denial to be believed, especially when the physician was a "respectable" Caucasian with top drawer credentials like Hardy. When colleagues and medical boards acted this way they were adding "system level injury" to the "direct injury" done by the abusive physician.
But in addition to bad things being done to patients by individual physicians, unresponsive colleagues and inactive medical boards, there are symmetrical risks of harm being done to "innocent" physicians. 40 years ago a young patient of mine with mild developmental disability was angry when I cancelled an appointment. She complained to the medical board that I had molested her. I had hurt her feelings, but that's not what she said to the board. By the time the board contacted me my patient and I had rescheduled the appointment and we were once again on good terms. I was too naive at the time to recognize how serious a complaint to the board could be. My patient had had a brief adolescent snit, but just as a malicious physician may lie about his offenses, a malicious patient may fabricate an accusation. When a board or the court of public opinion finds an "innocent" physician "guilty," a severe harm is done to the physician.
I don't see any way of ensuring the right answer to these "bad vs bad" conflicts. I know that patients have been harmed by having their reports of abuse disbelieved. But I'm sure that exemplary physicians have, on occasion, been harmed by complaints based on misunderstanding or malicious intent. Years ago, when I was in charge of a medical facility, a female patient complained that her male physician had been masturbating during an appointment. I met with the physician to take up the complaint. He said that perhaps his underwear had twisted around his testicles and that he readjusted his clothing and his anatomy via his pocket. (Male readers have probably experienced the underwear problem.) I believed him, and explained what I thought had happened to the patient. She seemed to accept my interpretation, and that was the sole complaint ever received about the physician. But stranger things have happened than what the patient initially alleged. While I believe I got the situation right, a crystal ball might tell us that the physician lied and I unwittingly exonerated him and did an injury to the patient.
The excellent reporting done by the Boston Globe gives some guidance about how the health system and medical profession can handle these "bad v bad" conflicts better. Colleagues need to follow up on stories they hear from patients or rumors. At the very least this means talking directly with the physician in question. This isn't easy, but it's clearly the right thing to do. It didn't happen early enough with Dr. Hardy. If the physician is "guilty" it puts him or her on notice that the medical community is vigilant. At best the physician will say "I made a terrible mistake and I need to get help..." But even if the physician lies in a plausible manner, knowing that others are concerned will diminish the likelihood of repeat offenses.And if the accused physician is "innocent" he or she will be embarrassed or appalled, but it's better not to have unchallenged rumors circulating.
It's a privilege to be allowed to become part of patients' lives in the intimate way that medical care involves. But that very intimacy creates risks - primarily for patients but also for physicians. We need our health system to protect patients from exploitation and injury without making physicians so wary about accusations that they overly constrain their human warmth and caring.
Not an easy task!
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