Emily Hoerner – Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com Get Chicago news and Illinois news from The Chicago Tribune Wed, 29 May 2024 22:04:18 +0000 en-US hourly 30 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.4 https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/favicon.png?w=16 Emily Hoerner – Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com 32 32 228827641 Illinois lawmakers pass bill to expand reporting of sexual abuse in health care settings following Tribune investigation https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/05/29/illinois-lawmakers-pass-bill-to-expand-reporting-of-sexual-abuse-in-health-care/ Wed, 29 May 2024 16:04:16 +0000 https://www.chicagotribune.com/?p=15967418 The Illinois legislature has passed a bill that would require more health care facilities to report allegations of patient abuse to the state — a measure that follows a Tribune investigation into the issue.

Under the bill, doctors’ offices and clinics affiliated with hospitals would have to report allegations of patient abuse to the Illinois Department of Public Health, triggering an investigation by the state. Now, hospitals must only report allegations that happen at hospitals.

The House unanimously passed the bill Tuesday night. The Senate also previously passed the bill unanimously. The bill now goes to the governor for his signature.

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the bill Wednesday.

The bill comes several months after a Tribune investigation found that well-known health systems allowed workers accused of sexually abusing patients to continue providing care, and, in some cases, those same health care workers were then accused of abusing additional patients.

As part of the investigation, the Tribune also detailed the role Endeavor Health played in allowing former obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Fabio Ortega to continue working despite complaints from patients. Some of the complaints against him involved alleged incidents that happened at Endeavor-affiliated doctors’ offices — outside hospital walls.

Ortega has faced lawsuits from more than 60 patients accusing him of sexual assault or abuse, and he pleaded guilty in 2021 to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of two patients. Most of the patients who filed those lawsuits also accuse the health systems where Ortega worked of failing to protect them.

The Illinois Hospital Association and the Illinois Department of Public Health both collaborated with Illinois Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, who originally proposed the bill. Attorneys representing dozens of women who have filed suit against Ortega also worked with Cassidy on the bill.

One of those attorneys, Tamara Holder, who represents most of the women who have sued Ortega and Endeavor along with her co-counsels Johanna Raimond and Stephan Blandin, called the bill’s passage “a huge victory.”

Attorney Tamara Holder holds a Zoom meeting with staff from her home office on Jan. 9 in Chicago. Holder represents more than 100 women who allege to have been sexually assaulted by Dr. Fabio Ortega. She called the bill’s passage “a huge victory.” (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

“Women are going to finally be heard when they complain about doctor misconduct in an office or outside of a hospital setting where doctor patient abuse predominantly occurs,” Holder said.

During the legislative session Tuesday night Cassidy told her colleagues in the House that the bill closes an existing loophole in the law. “We have more work to do to make sure that patients are safe in health care situations, but this is an important first start,” she said.

The bill’s Senate sponsor, Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, called the bill a “strong step” toward preventing future patient abuse in a news release after the measure passed through the chamber over the weekend.

Carrie Ward, CEO of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said the bill is an “important expansion” of reporting requirements.

Tribune reporting also identified several hospitals that had not reported patient allegations of abuse to the state’s health department as required. Those facilities appeared to face few consequences as a result.

The investigation revealed that gaps in state laws and slow action by the state agency responsible for disciplining licensed health care providers sometimes resulted in doctors and other health care workers continuing to provide care for months or years after patients alleged sexual misconduct.

Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation spokesperson Chris Slaby said in a statement that the agency, which oversees licensing and discipline for health care professionals, is working on additional reforms with legislators and “plans to pursue legislation in the fall veto session.”

Chicago Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner contributed to this report.

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15967418 2024-05-29T11:04:16+00:00 2024-05-29T17:04:18+00:00
More Illinois health care facilities would have to report patient abuse under new bill https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/05/16/illinois-health-care-facilities-report-patient-abuse-new-bill/ Thu, 16 May 2024 22:10:37 +0000 https://www.chicagotribune.com/?p=15926847 Doctors’ offices and clinics affiliated with hospitals would have to report allegations of patient abuse to the state health department under a measure introduced by Illinois lawmakers this week — legislation that comes about three months after a Chicago Tribune investigation examined the issue.

Under current law hospitals must promptly report allegations of patient abuse, including sexual abuse by a health care worker, to the Illinois Department of Public Health, triggering an investigation into the hospital’s handling of the matter. But allegations of patient abuse that occur at doctors’ offices or clinics outside of hospital walls, even those connected with hospitals, are not currently required to be reported to the state’s health department.

“This is just a simple commonsense fix to make clear that hospitals have responsibility for providers at any of their facilities,” said Illinois Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, who is behind the legislation. “It kind of falls into that category, do we really need to tell somebody out loud that that’s what we expect of them? Apparently we do, so we are.”

Earlier this year, a Chicago Tribune investigation revealed that several well-known health systems allowed workers accused of sexually abusing patients to continue providing care. In several instances, those same health care workers were then accused of abusing additional patients.

In one of the most prominent cases in the state, former Endeavor Health gynecologist Dr. Fabio Ortega has faced lawsuits from more than 60 patients accusing him of sexual assault or abuse. In October 2021, Ortega pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of two patients following incidents that occurred at two Endeavor-affiliated offices. Many of the alleged incidents described in the lawsuits occurred at hospital-affiliated facilities where the doctor regularly practiced. In the suits, the women accuse the health systems where he worked of failing to protect them.

The Tribune reported on the pivotal role Endeavor, formerly NorthShore University HealthSystem, played in keeping the doctor in place despite multiple complaints from patients.

Cassidy said the bill directly addresses what happened with Ortega.

“This is literally closing the most egregious loophole with the understanding that there is a lot more to do here,” Cassidy said.

Tamara Holder, an attorney who represents most of the women who have sued Ortega and Endeavor along with her co-counsels Johanna Raimond and Stephan Blandin, said the bill is a good start, and will help force “health care institutions to listen to women.” Holder and her co-counsels also helped work on the bill.

“This is important because women spend most of their time receiving gynecological and obstetrical care in a clinic, not in a hospital setting, and the Ortega case and other cases across the country show that most of the abuse does occur in a clinical setting or in an office setting because that’s where doctors have more privacy and alone time with patients,” Holder said.

The Illinois Health and Hospital Association also collaborated on the bill. “The hospital community condemns any form of patient abuse, and supports reporting requirements to protect patients and ensure governing bodies are aware of these incidents,” association spokesperson Amy Barry said in an emailed statement.

Endeavor Health said in a statement Thursday it “is grateful for the good faith efforts of Illinois lawmakers and the hospital community regarding proposals for reporting parity between hospitals and wholly owned external sites” and it will “continue to evaluate the implications of any changes to Illinois law on our patients and staff.”

Sen. Karina Villa, who leads the Illinois Senate Public Health Committee, said she plans to be a sponsor of the bill when it reaches the Senate. She said hospital affiliates shouldn’t be exempt from having to report allegations of abuse. Citing the Tribune’s findings, she called the new legislation “a positive start” and said there’s more work to be done in future legislative sessions.

The Tribune’s reporting also identified several failings in state oversight, including gaps in state laws and slow action by the state agency responsible for disciplining health care workers that resulted in some doctors and other workers accused of abuse continuing to provide patient care for months or years. When hospitals failed to report patient allegations of abuse, they appeared to face few consequences from the state, the Tribune found.

Cassidy said she plans to discuss measures to address accountability in the summer.

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15926847 2024-05-16T17:10:37+00:00 2024-05-16T17:14:01+00:00
Another 26 women sue Endeavor Health and gynecologist Fabio Ortega, convicted of sexual abuse https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/04/17/fabio-ortega-endeavor-lawsuits/ Wed, 17 Apr 2024 22:02:17 +0000 https://www.chicagotribune.com/?p=15871451 Another 26 women filed lawsuits against former gynecologist Dr. Fabio Ortega and Endeavor Health this week, with many alleging the doctor sexually assaulted them and that Endeavor failed to protect them.

A total of 60 former patients have now sued Ortega, Endeavor and/or Swedish Hospital, where Ortega previously worked.

Most of the 26 women behind the new lawsuits allege they saw Ortega for exams in 2017 — after Skokie police had already notified Endeavor they were investigating the doctor’s behavior because of a patient complaint. The lawsuits allege that Endeavor — formerly known as NorthShore University HealthSystem — never told the patients that Ortega was under criminal investigation, though police contacted the health system in early February 2017.

Most of the new lawsuits include allegations that Ortega fondled the women’s breasts “under the guise of performing a breast exam” and made inappropriate comments. One of the women alleges that he rubbed her clitoris and licked the inside of her leg. Another woman alleges that he told her during her exam, “If I was your husband, I would have sex with you every day.”

The 26 women who filed the new lawsuits all filed anonymously as “Jane Doe.”

Endeavor’s “institutional failures” resulted in the women “being subjected to medically unnecessary gynecological examinations by Ortega,” most of the new lawsuits allege.

Endeavor said in a statement Wednesday that it is unable to comment on pending litigation but said: “We remain committed to reviewing individual claims and engaging in a process that allows for meaningful response to each individual impacted to reach a supportive resolution.”

Attempts to reach Ortega for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful.

One of the women who sued Ortega and Endeavor this week told the Tribune she decided to take legal action in hopes of finding justice.

“I think that he should be held accountable as well as Endeavor,” the woman said, adding, “I think that the system itself has to do better, and hopefully the financial consequences for this system and Dr. Ortega will help them to do better.”

The Tribune generally does not identify survivors of alleged sexual assault without their permission.

In court Wednesday, two of the previously pending cases brought by former patients of Ortega cleared a legal hurdle and will continue moving forward. Attorneys for Ortega, Swedish and Endeavor had separately filed motions to dismiss the complaints brought by the patients, known as Jane Doe 36 and Jane Doe 47, arguing in part that the allegations were too old to be litigated. Cook County Circuit Judge Kathy Flanagan denied those motions.

Of the dozens of lawsuits filed against Ortega, Endeavor and/or Swedish in relation to Ortega, 23 have been settled for undisclosed amounts so far. Swedish is now part of the Endeavor Health system.

Dr. Fabio Ortega walks outside a courtroom at the Daley Center on March 22, 2023. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Dr. Fabio Ortega walks outside a courtroom at the Daley Center on March 22, 2023. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Ortega pleaded guilty in October 2021 to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of two former patients. He was sentenced to three years in prison and is required to remain on the state’s sex offender registry for life. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation revoked his medical license following the conviction.

A Chicago Tribune investigation revealed this year that Endeavor and several other well-known health systems throughout the state allowed health care workers accused of sexually abusing patients to continue providing care. In some cases, workers went on to face allegations of abuse from additional patients.

The Tribune found that Endeavor allowed Ortega to continue providing care despite multiple complaints from patients. Health systems appeared to face few consequences from the state for failing to remove abusive health care professionals, the investigation found.

Under state law, hospitals are required to report allegations of patient abuse to the Illinois Department of Public Health, which can trigger an investigation. The state does not require owners of private practices and clinics to notify the state’s health department of patient abuse allegations that occur outside of hospital walls. Gaps in state laws, as well as slow disciplinary action by the state’s licensing agency, allowed some doctors and other health care workers accused of abuse to continue working with patients for years, the Tribune found.

Attorneys Tamara Holder, Johanna Raimond and Stephan Blandin, who represent most of the women who have filed lawsuits, including 25 brought this week, have asked the Illinois attorney general and the office of outgoing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to criminally investigate the troubled doctor and Endeavor, saying hundreds of additional women have come forward since Ortega pleaded guilty in 2021.

The Cook County state’s attorney’s office said in a statement earlier this month that it encourages victims and their attorneys to work with law enforcement to investigate allegations. A spokesperson for the state’s attorney’s office said Wednesday the office had no updates. The Illinois attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Holder and her co-counsels say they have been retained by more than 200 former patients of Ortega’s. Attorneys Parker Stinar, Symone Shinton and Todd Stalmack with Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley represent two patients who have filed lawsuits against Ortega and Endeavor and say they have also been retained by hundreds more.

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15871451 2024-04-17T17:02:17+00:00 2024-04-17T17:02:47+00:00
Attorneys call on AG’s office to criminally investigate former doctor Fabio Ortega and health systems where he worked https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/04/03/attorneys-investigate-fabio-ortega/ Wed, 03 Apr 2024 23:36:37 +0000 https://www.chicagotribune.com/?p=15833901 Attorneys representing former patients of OB-GYN Fabio Ortega are calling on the Illinois attorney general and the office of outgoing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to criminally investigate the troubled doctor and the health systems where he worked.

The request came the same day that one of the women who is suing Ortega and Swedish Covenant Health spoke publicly for the first time, saying she wants justice for herself and others who allege Ortega harmed them.

“I’m not afraid of him,” Ericka Matos said of Ortega, at a news conference Wednesday. “I’m not crying anymore like I used to. I’m strong right now. I want justice for me and for the rest of the ladies.”

Cook County prosecutors charged Ortega with criminal sexual assault of two patients in 2018 and 2019. The former gynecologist pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of both patients in October 2021, and a judge sentenced him to three years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He received credit for 170 days served pretrial and was released after one year in prison in 2022.

Attorneys representing more than 30 women who alleged in civil court that Ortega sexually assaulted them during exams and appointments at Endeavor locations, and, before that, at Swedish Hospital, are urging Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the state’s attorney’s office to further investigate the doctor and the health systems where he worked. Though Ortega pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two former patients, additional women also complained to police, according to records obtained by the Tribune.

The attorneys noted in their letter to those offices that the “landscape has changed” since Ortega pleaded guilty in 2021 to sexually abusing two of his patients, with hundreds of additional women coming forward.

Attorneys Tamara Holder, Johanna Raimond and Stephan Blandin, who authored Wednesday’s letter, said they have been retained by more than 200 former patients of Ortega. Attorneys Parker Stinar and Symone Shinton, with Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley, said they represent another 300 of Ortega’s former patients and held a separate news conference last week.

“So many other women have not gotten justice, not from the criminal justice system, not from NorthShore University HealthSystem, which is now Endeavor Health, not from Swedish Covenant Health, and not from Fabio Ortega,” Raimond said at the news conference Wednesday. “We’re here today to request that justice.”

The Cook County state’s attorney’s office said in a statement Wednesday that it “takes all allegations of sexual assault with the utmost seriousness.

“We encourage victims and their counsel to collaborate with law enforcement to investigate any allegations, who will then bring the evidence to the CCSAO for review for potential charges,” the office said in the statement.

Ericka Matos sits next to a mugshot of Dr. Fabio Ortega during a press conference at Romanucci & Blandin Law office on Wednesday, April 3, 2024, in Chicago. Today Matos filed suit against Ortega and Swedish Covenant Health contending he sexually assaulted her decades ago. Ortega pleaded guilty in 2021 to sexually abusing two former patients. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Ericka Matos sits next to a mugshot of Dr. Fabio Ortega during a news conference at the Romanucci & Blandin Law office in Chicago on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Matos has filed a lawsuit against Ortega and Swedish Covenant Health contending he sexually assaulted her decades ago. Ortega pleaded guilty in 2021 to sexually abusing two former patients. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

The Illinois attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon. Attempts to reach Ortega for comment were also unsuccessful Wednesday afternoon.

Endeavor said in a statement Wednesday that “there is nothing more important than providing a safe and trusted environment for our patients, community and team members. … We have absolutely no tolerance for abuse of any kind.”

Endeavor noted in the statement that Ortega has not worked there in more than six years and said the “past events that have been reported are incredibly upsetting and concerning.”

“Since these events, we underwent a rigorous process to review and enhance our policies across all of our hospitals and care sites to ensure we have an environment that supports reporting of threatened or actual abuse, including review by a system-wide oversight committee,” Endeavor said in the statement. “We investigate all allegations of abuse that are reported to us, take prompt action in all matters and fully cooperate with law enforcement.” Swedish is now part of the Endeavor system.

A Chicago Tribune investigation earlier this year documented Endeavor Health’s role in allowing Ortega to continue working despite complaints. The investigation revealed that other well-known health systems also allowed health care professionals accused of sexual misconduct to continue working with patients. Under state law, hospitals are supposed to report allegations of patient abuse to the Illinois Department of Public Health. When hospitals failed to do so, the Tribune investigation found, few meaningful consequences followed.

Allegations of patient abuse that occur outside of hospitals, such as at clinics, are not required to be reported to the state. As a result of that and other gaps in state laws and a state licensing agency that can be slow to take disciplinary action, the Tribune found that doctors and other health care workers accused of sexual misconduct sometimes continued working with patients for months or years.

As a result of the reporting, the Illinois Department of Public Health and state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, have said they are working on legislation to address gaps in state laws identified by the Tribune. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which oversees many medical professionals, is also participating in drafting the legislation.

Ericka Matos, center-front, speaks about wanting justice for herself and others who contend Dr. Fabio Ortega sexually assaulted them during a press conference at Romanucci & Blandin Law office on Wednesday, April 3, 2024, in Chicago. Standing behind Matos are attorneys, left to right, Johanna Raimond, Tamara Holder, and Michael Holden. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Ericka Matos speaks April 3, 2024, at Romanucci & Blandin Law office in Chicago about wanting justice for herself and others who contend Dr. Fabio Ortega sexually assaulted them. Standing behind Matos are attorneys, from left, Johanna Raimond, Tamara Holder and Michael Holden. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

A bill has not yet been proposed in Springfield. But according to a summary of the potential legislation shared by Cassidy’s office, the bill would require all hospital affiliates — including clinics such as the one where Ortega worked — to report allegations of provider abuse or misconduct within 24 hours to the state health department, and it would impose financial penalties on hospitals that fail to report allegations.

It would also require leaders of medical corporations, which include organizations not necessarily tied to hospitals, to report sexual misconduct by licensed health care professionals to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation within 24 hours.

Holder and her co-counsels are working with the representative on the bill. Raimond said the legislation, if signed into law, would ensure that health systems “do not continue to ignore the warning signs that they have a predator in their midst.”

Matos, one of the women who is suing Ortega and Swedish, said Wednesday that she wants justice.

In the civil lawsuit she refiled Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court, Matos alleged that over the course of several appointments in the 1990s the doctor performed vaginal exams without medical gloves, instructed her to squeeze his finger while it was inserted in her vagina, and at one appointment asked her questions about her sexual fantasies and orgasms.

Matos is the first woman to file a lawsuit alleging Ortega sexually assaulted her, using her name.

Matos originally filed a suit against Ortega and Swedish in 2019 using the pseudonym Jane Doe 1, but voluntarily dismissed the suit last year so her attorneys could focus on a different case that was set for trial.

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15833901 2024-04-03T18:36:37+00:00 2024-04-03T18:50:12+00:00
More patients sue former Endeavor Health gynecologist Fabio Ortega, alleging sexual assault https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/04/01/patients-sue-endeavor-health-fabio-ortega/ Mon, 01 Apr 2024 21:59:31 +0000 https://www.chicagotribune.com/?p=15822174 Three more women are suing former OB-GYN Dr. Fabio Ortega and the health systems where he worked, alleging the doctor sexually assaulted them as patients.

A total of 34 former patients have now sued Ortega, Endeavor Health and/or Swedish Hospital alleging inappropriate conduct by the doctor.

Two of the newly filed lawsuits are against Ortega and Endeavor, with the women contending that the hospital system failed to protect them from the doctor despite knowing, at the times of their appointments, that he was under police investigation for abusing a patient. Another woman is suing Ortega and Swedish Hospital, where Ortega worked before joining Endeavor. Swedish is now part of Endeavor.

Endeavor said in a statement Monday it “cannot further comment on pending lawsuits.” Attempts to reach Ortega for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

So far, 23 of the lawsuits involving Ortega, Endeavor and/or Swedish have settled. Ortega pleaded guilty in October 2021 to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of two former patients, was sentenced to three years in prison and has a lifetime requirement to remain on the state’s sex offender registry.

A Tribune investigation earlier this year described how Endeavor — one of the largest hospital systems in the Chicago area — allowed Ortega to continue seeing patients for years despite complaints. The investigation showed that a number of well-known Illinois health systems, including Endeavor, also allowed workers accused of sexual misconduct with patients to continue working. Health systems faced few meaningful consequences for allowing alleged abusers to have continued access to patients, the Tribune found.

One of Ortega’s former patients, identified in her lawsuit as Jane Doe 49, alleged that following the birth of her first child in late December 2000 Ortega performed a vaginal and rectal exam on the 20-year-old without a medical need and without her consent.

Jane Doe 49 also alleges that the hospital allowed Ortega to keep seeing patients unsupervised despite knowing about previous complaints from female patients. Swedish never informed her that Ortega had been accused of inappropriate conduct by other patients, she contends in the suit.

In another one of the new lawsuits, a woman identified as Jane Doe 71 alleges that Ortega made inappropriate comments and performed unnecessary vaginal exams during prenatal appointments in 2017. In her lawsuit, she contends that Endeavor was negligent and knew or should have known that Ortega was a danger to patients.

A third former patient contends in her lawsuit that Endeavor assigned her to see Ortega throughout her pregnancy in 2016 and 2017 because her prior OB-GYN was unable to take on additional patients. The patient, identified as Jane Doe 72, alleges that the doctor performed medically unnecessary vaginal exams throughout her pregnancy and engaged in inappropriate behavior during postpartum care.

In June 2017, according to the lawsuit, Ortega instructed the patient to perform Kegel exercises while his fingers were still inside her, and slid his fingers back and forth and stated “that’s a good girl.”

Jane Doe 72 and Jane Doe 71 said in their lawsuits that Endeavor never informed them that Ortega was under criminal investigation by the Skokie police because another patient alleged he had sexually assaulted her in early 2017.

With the new lawsuits, Endeavor has now been sued by six women who contended they were assaulted or abused by Ortega after Endeavor knew he was under police investigation. Endeavor has settled two of those lawsuits.

A Skokie police report shows that police first contacted Endeavor — then known as NorthShore University HealthSystem — in February 2017 about a patient who alleged Ortega assaulted her during an appointment. Police then spent months investigating, going back and forth with Endeavor about Ortega.

Ortega was put on leave Aug. 14, 2017, and resigned from NorthShore about a year later, Ortega said in response to questions raised in one of the lawsuits against him.

The three new lawsuits were filed on behalf of the women by attorney Tamara Holder and her co-counsels Johanna Raimond and Stephan Blandin. Holder represents most of the women who have sued Ortega, Endeavor and Swedish.

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15822174 2024-04-01T16:59:31+00:00 2024-04-01T17:00:01+00:00
New lawsuit alleges abuse by former Endeavor Health gynecologist Fabio Ortega https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/03/26/lawsuit-alleges-abuse-fabio-ortega/ Tue, 26 Mar 2024 22:52:02 +0000 https://www.chicagotribune.com/?p=15797455 A Cook County woman filed suit Monday against Endeavor Health and former gynecologist Fabio Ortega, contending the doctor sexually abused her and the health system failed to intervene after other patients complained of sexual misconduct.

Monday’s lawsuit joins 22 other lawsuits filed against Ortega and Endeavor, formerly NorthShore University HealthSystem, since 2019. Most of the suits allege the health system knew or should have known Ortega was a danger to patients. Four lawsuits, including the one filed Monday, allege the abuse took place after Endeavor was made aware that the Skokie Police Department was investigating Ortega.

Swedish Covenant Hospital, which was acquired by Endeavor in 2020, is also named in Monday’s suit.

In the suit filed Monday, the plaintiff alleges she was sexually abused by the doctor during two prenatal appointments at an Evanston facility in April and August 2017. That patient, identified in the suit as Jane Doe 300, contends the vaginal exams conducted by the gynecologist were prolonged and conducted in a manner intended to stimulate her sexually, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit states Endeavor either knew or should have known about sexual misconduct complaints other patients had raised about Ortega and Endeavor failed to properly investigate, train or discipline the doctor.

The lawsuit also alleges that Endeavor concealed the fact that Ortega was under police investigation. The plaintiff said in her suit that she did not realize she was abused by Ortega until seeing news articles about him earlier this year.

Parker Stinar, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff in Monday’s suit, said the hospital system did not notify its patients of sexual misconduct allegations that were brought against the doctor.

“Instead they continued to cover up and conceal Ortega’s conduct,” said Stinar, who has represented other plaintiffs alleging sexual misconduct, including former patients of University of Michigan doctor Robert E. Anderson and former members of Northwestern University’s football team.

A Tribune investigation earlier this year revealed Endeavor’s pivotal role in keeping Ortega in place for years despite multiple complaints from patients. The investigation also found that several well-known health systems in Illinois, including Endeavor, allowed health care workers accused of sexual misconduct to keep seeing patients. Even when workers, including nurses and doctors, were accused by additional patients of abuse, the health systems faced few consequences from the state.

Ortega was charged with criminal sexual assault in 2018 and 2019 related to two patients. He pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse in both cases in October 2021 and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Many of the suits filed against Ortega and Endeavor or Swedish have ended in confidential settlement agreements, and a handful of suits are still pending. Attorney Tamara Holder represented nearly all of the other patients who have sued Ortega, Endeavor or Swedish alleging sexual assault by the doctor.

Dr. Fabio Ortega, shown in March 2023 during a civil proceeding at the Daley Center, pleaded guilty in 2021 to sexually abusing two former patients. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Dr. Fabio Ortega, shown in March 2023 during a civil proceeding at the Daley Center, pleaded guilty in 2021 to sexually abusing two former patients. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

The most recent lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $50,000.

At a news conference, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys in Monday’s suit, Symone Shinton, said betrayal wasn’t a strong enough word to describe Endeavor’s actions toward its patients.

“Today Swedish and (Endeavor) must finally listen to the voices of the women they silenced for decades,” Shinton said. “They enabled a sexual predator. They gave him a platform. And they gaslit the women who continue to come forward and report what was going on there.”

Endeavor said in a statement that it is unable to comment on specific allegations because of patient privacy and pending litigation.

“There is nothing more important than providing a safe and trusted environment for our patients, community and team members,” the statement said. “Our policies require we investigate all allegations of abuse that are reported to us, take prompt action in all matters and fully cooperate with law enforcement.”

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15797455 2024-03-26T17:52:02+00:00 2024-03-26T17:53:10+00:00
Chaperones may offer one solution to sexual abuse of patients by medical providers https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/03/10/chaperones-sexual-abuse-solution/ Sun, 10 Mar 2024 10:00:09 +0000 https://www.chicagotribune.com/?p=15695098 Tearha Hill typically stands to one side of the room, with her eyes trained on the medical exam happening in front of her.

The licensed practical nurse watches the doctor. Every few seconds, she looks at the patient’s face, searching for signs of distress.

As a chaperone in the Women’s Health Clinic at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, Hill is present for sensitive procedures including Pap smears, breast exams and pelvic exams, acting as a witness and helping to protect both patients and doctors.

“As a chaperone, we have to ensure patient and provider comfort — for safety, privacy and dignity,” said Hill, who serves in that role in addition to her regular duties.

Preventing patient sexual abuse is an issue that’s gained national attention amid the fallout from scandals such as Dr. Larry Nassar’s abuse of female athletes; the hundreds of allegations leveled at former University of Southern California gynecologist George Tyndall; and Columbia University’s acknowledged failures regarding gynecologist Robert Hadden, also accused of sexually abusing hundreds of patients.

In Illinois, the Tribune recently exposed how several large Illinois health systems allowed health care workers who were accused of sexually abusing patients to continue working, sometimes leading to additional harm.

In one of the most egregious local cases, at least 30 patients have accused gynecologist Fabio Ortega of sexually assaulting them. Several women alleged in lawsuits he assaulted them after NorthShore University HealthSystem – now known as Endeavor Health – already knew he was under police investigation. Ortega pleaded guilty in 2021 to sexually abusing two former patients and was sentenced to three years in prison; his medical license was permanently revoked. Endeavor has settled 21 civil lawsuits related to Ortega.

The Tribune found that Endeavor and other health systems have faced few consequences from state or federal regulators for allowing providers accused of sexually abusing patients to continue working. Sometimes, all regulators required was a plan to do better in the future. The Tribune also found that the state agency that regulates many medical licensees can be slow to take disciplinary action, and providers who worked outside of hospitals sometimes practiced for months while police investigated allegations against them, because of loopholes in state law.

In addition to addressing those issues, some medical experts and survivors of sexual abuse say broader use of chaperones may be one way to prevent misconduct.

“I would like to see rules put in place where this can’t occur to any other women,” said Victoria, one of the women who has sued Ortega and Endeavor, alleging the doctor sexually assaulted her during an exam in 2017. The Tribune is using a pseudonym for Victoria because the Tribune generally does not identify survivors of sexual abuse or assault without their permission.

Victoria told the Tribune she doesn’t know why a chaperone wasn’t in the room with her and Ortega, especially given that he was under police investigation at the time because of another patient’s abuse complaint. She contends in her lawsuit that she asked if her partner could be in the exam room with her and was told no.

Endeavor now has signs in at least some of its doctors’ offices telling patients they can request medical chaperones. In response to Tribune questions, Endeavor said in a statement that it offers chaperones for sensitive exams, such as those involving the breasts or genitals. Endeavor also said it requires any provider accused of abuse to work with a chaperone or be removed from care pending the outcome of an investigation.

Endeavor declined to comment on specific allegations from Victoria and other patients, citing patient privacy and pending litigation. It also would not say whether Ortega was removed from care or required to work with a chaperone after women complained about his behavior, and did not answer questions about when it began offering chaperones for sensitive appointments or whether the policy is related to Ortega.

In a separate statement, Endeavor said it had “enhanced and evolved” its processes and policies to support the reporting of abuse allegations in the years since Ortega worked for the organization. “We have absolutely no tolerance for abuse of any kind,” Endeavor said.

Protecting patients, doctors

In the past, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that chaperones be used when patients or doctors requested them. But in late 2019, the college changed its position, recommending that chaperones be present for all breast, genital and rectal exams with a few exceptions, such as during medical emergencies. Often, nurses or medical assistants serve as chaperones in addition to their other duties.

“Given the profoundly negative effect of sexual misconduct on patients and the medical profession and the association between misconduct and the absence of a chaperone, ACOG now believes that the routine use of chaperones is needed for the protection of patients and obstetrician-gynecologists,” the college wrote in 2019.

The same document also provided a list of unacceptable behavior during exams, including watching patients undress, asking unnecessary questions about sexual history or sexual desires, and touching patients’ genitals with ungloved hands.

Administrative rules in Oregon and Alabama require chaperones be present, or at least offered, during many exams of intimate parts of the body. Georgia’s administrative rules state that not having a chaperone present during certain types of exams is considered unprofessional conduct, unless the patient specifically refuses a chaperone.

Licensed practical nurse Tearha Hill, right, takes the vitals of Yolanda Jones at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital. Hill serves as a chaperone in addition to her regular duties. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Licensed practical nurse Tearha Hill, right, takes the vitals of Yolanda Jones at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital. Hill serves as a chaperone in addition to her regular duties. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Illinois has no law requiring chaperones at sensitive medical appointments, but the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the state agency responsible for oversight of doctors and many other licensed health care workers, can mandate in some circumstances that providers use chaperones.

So-called chaperone orders must be issued for individual medical providers, including nurses and doctors, if they have been charged with certain crimes, including sexual offenses. Chris Slaby, a spokesperson with the agency, said the orders are one of its “strongest tools.”

The agency has in at least one instance required that a health care provider utilize an attendant while his license is on probation, state records show.

In the absence of criminal charges and a state-issued chaperone order, it’s up to individual health systems in Illinois to decide whether to offer chaperones, and their practices vary.

Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country require chaperones during certain types of appointments, though patients can decline a chaperone if they wish.

Sinai Chicago requires chaperones for all of its gynecological appointments, according to spokesperson Dan Regan. Representatives for Cook County Health and Rush University Medical Center said those institutions also use chaperones for sensitive gynecological appointments.

Other systems in Illinois offer patients the option. Obstetricians and gynecologists who work for Ascension Illinois have signs in their offices telling patients they can request chaperones. At Advocate Health Care and Northwestern Medicine, chaperones are available to patients upon request, spokespeople said.

The American Medical Association recommends that physicians have chaperones available to patients upon request and make sure patients are aware of the option.

The use of chaperones can present challenges for medical practices and health systems, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Using chaperones might mean a health system has to hire more people or treat fewer patients.

Dr. Kavita Arora, an OB-GYN and recent past chair of the ethics committee for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, estimates that she sees about 20% fewer patients in a day when using chaperones than she could otherwise. But she thinks it’s worth it.

“It definitely impacts flow,” Arora said. “However, I think it’s really hard to put a price tag on the ethical and legal issues surrounding misconduct and boundary violations.”

Not a perfect solution

Some physicians and patients resist the idea of a third person being in the room during invasive exams.

Dr. Christine Ko, a dermatologist and professor at Yale University in Connecticut, said she was not allowed to refuse a chaperone when she went to Yale Health for a gynecology appointment in 2022. Yale Health requires chaperones at all sensitive appointments, including those involving breasts and genitals.

Ko said she thinks chaperones should be allowed but not required; she wrote an article about the topic last year for MedPage Today.

“It’s uncomfortable enough to be naked in front of one person,” Ko said. “To me, it changes the dynamic if I’m naked or exposed in front of two people.”

As a physician, she said, she also knows that patients sometimes confide important personal information to their doctors that they might not feel comfortable disclosing with another person in the room.

In addition, Ko said the hierarchical nature of medicine makes it hard for her to imagine a chaperone calling out a physician for inappropriate behavior in the middle of an exam.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says chaperones should be “empowered to report concerning behavior through a process independent of the health care provider being chaperoned.”

 


Red flags during sensitive exams

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists lists examples of inappropriate conduct during exams that include:

  • Watching patients undress
  • Failing to drape patients for privacy
  • Failing to obtain consent for sensitive exams, whether or not medical students are present
  • Touching a patient’s genitals with ungloved hands
  • Inquiring unnecessarily about details of a patient’s sexual history or sexual desires
  • Touching a patient’s genitals orally

 

The organization acknowledges that “although chaperones may deter or discourage sexual misconduct by physicians, sexual misconduct still can occur in their presence.”

That’s what Pamela Harris says happened to her. Harris, who gave the Tribune permission to use her name, filed a lawsuit in 2022 alleging that Dr. Ala Albazzaz fondled her breast during an in-home exam in January 2020, even though an attendant was present.

“I was in tears. I couldn’t believe that happened,” Harris said in a Tribune interview.

State records show that the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended Albazzaz’s license in 1997 after the agency heard testimony from six former patients who alleged sexual misconduct.

Earlier, prosecutors had filed dozens of charges accusing Albazzaz of touching women inappropriately during exams, according to Tribune reporting at the time. He was acquitted of criminal charges in 1990 related to one patient’s complaint and acquitted again in 1995 following a jury trial based on four women’s allegations, after which prosecutors dropped the remaining charges, the Tribune reported.

The state agency restored Albazzaz’s license to probationary status in 2008 and has required him to work with a female attendant when treating female patients ever since, according to state records.

Harris told Wheeling police in January 2020 that an attendant was in the room when Albazzaz examined her but the attendant’s back was turned when the doctor touched her inappropriately, according to Harris’ lawsuit.

“She should have been an active participant,” Harris told the Tribune. “She should have been facing me, watching what he’s doing and assisting, and she did nothing.”

Police closed the case in September 2020, records show; no criminal charges were brought against Albazzaz.

Albazzaz did not respond directly to the Tribune’s requests for comment on Harris’ allegations. In a letter to a Tribune attorney, a lawyer for Albazzaz described those allegations as “false”; he also stated that the female medical assistant was “observing and assisting Dr. Albazzaz, for the entirety of his examination of the patient.”

Training varies

None of the documents obtained by the Tribune address what training the woman at Harris’ exam might have had to be an attendant.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says chaperones should be trained “in the requirements of best clinical practices.”

Health systems contacted by the Tribune take varying approaches to training chaperones. A spokesperson for Rush said it requires all newly hired nurses, medical assistants and certified nursing assistants to participate in training that covers medical chaperoning.

Sinai Chicago and Cook County Health said they don’t require any chaperone-specific training.

The Hines VA, which requires chaperones during certain types of appointments, is developing a policy about chaperones, based on existing VA requirements, that will include additional training on what to look for and the importance of intervention, said Krystal Gilewski, who managed the Hines VA’s Women Veterans Program until December 2022, and still works for the organization.

Cheryl Stevenson, a licensed practical nurse who often chaperones appointments at the Hines VA, said serving as a chaperone is “something you learn, you pick up being a nurse.”

Serving as a chaperone is “something you learn, you pick up being a nurse,” said Cheryl Stevenson, left, shown joking with Dr. Hepsi Kalapala last fall at Hines VA Hospital. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

During a chaperoned exam, Stevenson said, she stands where she can see the patient’s face. If the patient looks distressed or uncomfortable, she’ll ask the patient if she’s OK, after which the doctor will typically pause.

Stevenson, who’s worked at the Women’s Health Clinic at Hines since 2015, said she’s never witnessed a physician do anything inappropriate. But if a doctor did cross a line she wouldn’t hesitate to speak up, she said.

“It’s not an issue where you feel uncomfortable or can’t say anything,” Stevenson said. “That’s not the case.”

One local doctor with Endeavor wrote about the increased push for chaperones in an op-ed for the Tribune that was published shortly after Columbia University and its affiliated hospitals announced a multimillion-dollar settlement based on patients’ complaints against former gynecologist Hadden.

Dr. Emmet Hirsch, an OB-GYN, wrote in the October 2022 piece that he couldn’t think of a better way to protect patients undergoing sensitive exams than by using chaperones. Yet he expressed concern that having a chaperone in the room might signal to patients that their doctors cannot be trusted. Hirsch is director of the OB hospitalist program at Endeavor in Evanston.

“And yet, the fact is that our patients need a level of protection we have not previously provided,” Hirsch wrote. “I accept the necessity of having chaperones in my exam room — but I do so with sadness. Sadness that my practice has changed and sadness that my colleagues and I can no longer be relied upon to do no harm to the people who have entrusted themselves to our care.”

Hirsch did not respond to a request for comment, and Endeavor Health would not make him available for an interview.

DePaul University student Samantha Moilanen contributed to this story.


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15695098 2024-03-10T05:00:09+00:00 2024-03-11T14:11:10+00:00
‘They knew, and did nothing’ https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/03/03/medical-misconduct-fabio-ortega/ Sun, 03 Mar 2024 11:00:50 +0000 https://www.chicagotribune.com/?p=15680954 Editor’s note: This story includes descriptions of sexual abuse.

As Victoria stepped into Dr. Fabio Ortega’s exam room in the summer of 2017, she had no idea the gynecologist’s career was hurtling toward destruction.

She didn’t know that an angry husband had called more than five months earlier to complain about Ortega’s treatment of his wife at a NorthShore University HealthSystem office in Skokie. The woman said the doctor had asked if it felt good when his fingers were inside her vagina, had conducted an ungloved breast exam, and had inquired about her sexual fantasies.

NorthShore, now called Endeavor Health, did not tell Victoria that Ortega was under police investigation as a result of that woman’s allegations, according to a lawsuit Victoria later filed. The Skokie Police Department had already gone back and forth with Endeavor about Ortega over a span of several months, police records show.

Nor was Victoria aware of Ortega’s previous history, including a patient who public records show had complained to Endeavor back in 2012, contending he had behaved inappropriately during an appointment.

Had Victoria known those things, she never would have agreed to see Ortega at his Lincolnwood office, she said in an interview. Instead, she wound up in a room with a gynecologist who would later serve prison time for sexually abusing patients.

“That’s what angers me the most, is NorthShore knew,” she said. “They could have done something.” The Tribune is using a pseudonym for Victoria because the Tribune generally does not name people who report being sexually assaulted or abused without their permission.

At least 30 women, including Victoria, have filed lawsuits alleging that Ortega sexually assaulted them during appointments over a span of three decades at various Endeavor locations and, before that, at Swedish Hospital in Chicago, formerly Swedish Covenant. Most of the lawsuits allege that Endeavor and Swedish either knew or should have known that Ortega was a danger to patients. They contend the health system failed to protect them.

Now a Tribune investigation has pieced together the fullest picture yet of Ortega’s troubled history with patients and Endeavor’s pivotal role in keeping the doctor in place, with access to vulnerable female patients, despite multiple complaints.

Dr. Fabio Ortega, shown in March 2023 during a civil proceeding at the Daley Center, pleaded guilty in 2021 to sexually abusing two former patients. His medical license has been revoked. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Dr. Fabio Ortega, shown in March 2023 during a civil proceeding at the Daley Center, pleaded guilty in 2021 to sexually abusing two former patients. His medical license has been revoked. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

In court records, patient after patient described how Ortega had inquired about their sex lives while his fingers were inside them. They recalled the doctor’s attempts to sexually stimulate them and the vaginal and breast examinations they now believe were not medically necessary.

At Victoria’s appointment, she contends in her lawsuit, the doctor touched her thigh without medical gloves, joked about her boyfriend’s penis size and tried to stimulate her while stating he was touching her “G spot.” She left the appointment in tears, she told the Tribune.

Tamara Holder, an attorney who is representing nearly all of the women who have sued Ortega, Endeavor and Swedish, said an additional 123 of Ortega’s former patients have retained her and her co-counsels, Johanna Raimond and Stephan Blandin, to represent them.

Ortega pleaded guilty in October 2021 to sexually abusing two former patients, including the woman whose husband called the Skokie medical office, and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Ortega and Endeavor have settled 21 lawsuits in the last five years, according to court records. Ortega and Swedish Hospital, which Endeavor acquired in 2020, have settled an additional two lawsuits, and six lawsuits against the doctor, Endeavor and/or Swedish are still pending.

The terms of the settlements are confidential, and Endeavor has never publicly admitted any wrongdoing or error in its handling of Ortega and the allegations against him.

By contrast, after ProPublica reported last year that Columbia University had protected gynecologist Robert Hadden, who faced allegations from hundreds of women, leaders of Columbia and Columbia University Irving Medical Center said in a November news release that they were “deeply sorry” that “Columbia failed these survivors.”

The release said Columbia would notify nearly 6,500 patients of Hadden’s crimes and establish a $100 million survivors’ settlement fund. It also said the university would commit to an external investigation to examine the failures that allowed Hadden to abuse patients and work with outside experts to review the hospital’s patient safety policies and procedures.

Attorney Tamara Holder is representing more than two dozen women who have sued Fabio Ortega, Endeavor Health and/or Swedish Hospital, where he used to work. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Attorney Tamara Holder is representing more than two dozen women who have sued Fabio Ortega, Endeavor Health and/or Swedish Hospital, where he used to work. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Endeavor Health did not answer numerous written questions from the Tribune about the allegations and lawsuits against Endeavor, Ortega and Swedish, saying in statements that it was unable to comment on pending claims or litigation but that “Endeavor Health has absolutely no tolerance for abuse of any kind.”

“The past events reported are incredibly upsetting and concerning, and we recognize the tremendous strength and courage it takes for survivors of abuse to come forward,” Endeavor said in a statement. The statement said Endeavor is committed to “meaningful review and response to each patient impacted.”

In the time since Ortega last worked there, Endeavor has “enhanced and evolved” its processes and policies to support the reporting of abuse allegations, the statement said. “Our policies require we investigate all allegations of abuse that are reported to us, (and) take prompt action in all matters, including removal from care or chaperoning for providers during investigation,” it said. “We also support patients in reporting allegations, and fully cooperate with law enforcement.”

The health system offers chaperones for sensitive exams and has implemented sensitivity training for providers, another Endeavor statement said.

Ortega did not respond to requests for comment for this story. But at the court hearing where he pleaded guilty to sexual abuse, he denied that he ever meant to harm his patients.

Endeavor is a large health system with nine hospitals, including in affluent northern and western suburbs, and has a total of about 300 locations providing care. The health system had more than $5.3 billion in revenue in 2022.

Some of Ortega’s patients say they wish Endeavor had devoted more of its resources to protecting them.

‘Something is very, very wrong’

Elena kept what happened buried within her for more than a decade.

Elena (also a pseudonym) began seeing Ortega at Swedish Hospital in 2001, amid the excitement of her first pregnancy. Elena, who typically brought her husband or mother to appointments, told the Tribune she found Ortega to be trustworthy at the time.

"Elena," shown in February, was a patient of Fabio Ortega's in the early 2000s. She sued him in 2019 after seeing he had been arrested and said she hopes that coming forward will inspire others to do the same. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
“Elena,” shown in February, was a patient of Fabio Ortega’s in the early 2000s. She sued him in 2019 after seeing he had been arrested and said she hopes that coming forward will inspire others to do the same. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

The doctor, who is from Colombia, spoke to her and her mother in Spanish, which provided additional comfort, Elena said. She remembers her mother saying he seemed like a great doctor.

When Elena became pregnant again two years later, she didn’t hesitate to turn to Ortega. But for this pregnancy, she went to most of the appointments by herself.

The appointments seemed different this time, she said. It seemed as if Ortega often wanted to do a vaginal exam, even during appointments where she thought she was there only to check on the baby’s heartbeat, she said.

The vaginal exams were rough and painful, according to the lawsuit she later filed. At one point, when she complained about the pain, Ortega made a comment about the size of her husband’s penis, she contended in the suit.

“The look on his face, at times, I had to just turn away because there was just something gross,” she told the Tribune.

Still, she stuck with him throughout the pregnancy. “You’re in this state of confusion, you’re like: ‘I know this guy. He helped deliver my first child.’”

She couldn’t wait until the pregnancy was over, so she wouldn’t have to see him anymore. She didn’t say anything to anyone at the time, she said — she worried she wouldn’t be believed.

Once her daughter was born, Elena tried to move on with her life but experienced anxiety and depression, she said. She could no longer stomach seeing male doctors, she said.

One day, more than 15 years later, Elena was scrolling through Facebook on her phone when she saw a headline about Ortega being arrested on a charge that he had sexually assaulted a patient.

“In that moment, my heart sank to my stomach; everything just went pitch black,” Elena said. “That’s when reality set in, like, OK, wait a minute, something is very, very wrong.”

"Elena" holds an unused baby book given to her after Dr. Fabio Ortega helped deliver her first baby more than 20 years ago. She covered her name to protect her privacy. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
“Elena” holds an unused baby book given to her after Dr. Fabio Ortega helped deliver her first baby more than 20 years ago. She covered her name to protect her privacy. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

She also, however, felt some relief. Now that Ortega had been arrested, and others had come forward, she felt safe talking about her own experience and she filed her lawsuit in December 2019. She withdrew the lawsuit in June 2023 so her attorneys could focus on an Endeavor case that was set for trial, but said she intends to file again in coming months.

“I’m hoping the fact that women like me, that have decided to come forward, even if it’s 20-plus years later, it can inspire somebody to say, ‘Hey, it’s not too late,’” Elena said.

Women who have sued Ortega told the Tribune they felt uncomfortable during his examinations but didn’t report the incidents earlier out of fear, disbelief or because they trusted that a doctor would do them no harm. In their lawsuits, the women said it wasn’t until they learned of Ortega’s criminal charges that they realized his behavior reflected something more sinister.

Jennifer, a patient who saw Ortega for an appointment in March 2016, told the Tribune: “I drove home and I remember thinking to myself: ‘No, that didn’t happen. You’re overreacting. He’s a doctor. A doctor would never ever do that.’”

Jennifer – also a pseudonym – alleged that as her feet were in stirrups, Ortega began asking her questions about her husband and sex life. As he questioned her, he stroked her vagina in a rhythmic motion, explaining that he was rubbing her G-spot, prosecutors said at the hearing at which Ortega pleaded guilty.

She tried to squirm away from him, she said, but she couldn’t move much.

During the breast exam, Ortega rubbed and groped Jennifer’s breasts, according to prosecutors. She told the Tribune she started counting the little holes in the ceiling tiles to take her mind off of what was happening.

Finally, he finished. He told her to get dressed, she said, and to come back for another appointment. She left and never returned.

Continuing to practice

Even before Skokie police began asking Endeavor Health questions about Ortega in 2017, there were signs that something was amiss with the doctor’s behavior.

One woman told police after Ortega was charged criminally that in 2006 or 2007 she had requested a chaperone during her appointments with Ortega after one exam left her in tears. She continued seeing the doctor until she got health insurance and was able to see another physician, according to a 2018 Skokie police report obtained by the Tribune.

Endeavor officials told police at the time that they had no records indicating the woman was ever a patient of Ortega’s, but also acknowledged that records from the time period may have been purged, the police report states.

In addition, a patient told Endeavor in 2012 that Ortega had asked inappropriate questions and touched her inappropriately during an exam, according to a court transcript.

Leaders of obstetrics and gynecology at Endeavor met with Ortega and presented him with the patient’s complaint, according to a 2012 note from the health system’s obstetrics director that a Cook County judge described last year at a hearing related to another patient’s lawsuit.

It’s not clear from court documents how Ortega responded at the time, but he said last year, in response to written questions from Jennifer’s lawyers, that it was “determined that my questions and exam were not inappropriate.”

According to the judge’s description of the note, the patient ended up apologizing for her “misconception” about Ortega’s actions.

A 2019 lawsuit filed against Ortega and Endeavor by another patient alleges that she told Endeavor staff on multiple occasions that she was refusing to see Ortega because she did not feel comfortable with him. In a 2016 Yelp post about the Lincolnwood clinic that is quoted in her lawsuit, the patient wrote that “while most of the doctors are wonderful, I had a bad experience with one particular (Ortega) and I feel like my problem is being dismissed and like they don’t care. I have told multiple people I do not feel comfortable with him, and I basically got told too bad.”

Dr. Fabio Ortega used to work in this Lincolnwood medical office, part of NorthShore University HealthSystem. NorthShore recently changed its name to Endeavor Health. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Dr. Fabio Ortega used to work in this Lincolnwood medical office, part of NorthShore University HealthSystem. NorthShore recently changed its name to Endeavor Health. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

A woman who sued Ortega and Endeavor in 2021 said in an affidavit that starting in April 2014 she told Endeavor schedulers on several occasions that she would not see Ortega.

Then came the patient whose angry husband called the Skokie medical office demanding to speak to Ortega after her appointment with the doctor in late January 2017. The woman also went to Skokie police, who first contacted Endeavor about a week after the incident, a police report states.

Endeavor allowed Ortega to see patients after police contacted the health system, court records show. Endeavor would not answer questions from the Tribune about whether it put Ortega on leave or at all restricted his duties in the months after the patient contacted police.

Officers spent more than a month going back and forth with an Endeavor office manager, an Endeavor attorney and the human resources department before they were able to question a medical worker and the physician who took the husband’s phone call, according to the police report.

At one point in the investigation, the report states, police received a call back from the human resources director only after police attempted to call Ortega and instead reached his wife.

During the same period that police were beginning to investigate the woman’s complaint, Endeavor was discussing the patient’s allegation with Ortega and the other doctor, according to police and state disciplinary documents.

Endeavor would not answer the Tribune’s questions about how it investigated the woman’s allegation. A complaint brought against Ortega by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation in 2018 states that Endeavor discussed the allegation with Ortega on Feb. 10, 11 days after the woman’s husband contacted the medical group — and three days after being contacted by police.

The gynecologist who spoke to the patient’s husband told police in mid-March of 2017 that he had already been interviewed by the human resources director and another Endeavor manager, in the presence of two attorneys, according to the police report.

Police interviewed Ortega about six months after the patient went to police. Records show they also talked to him about another patient whose husband had reported the doctor to the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation in 2014, alleging inappropriate conduct. Police learned from the department, which oversees doctors’ licenses, that it had closed the complaint because it couldn’t reach the man or his wife for follow-up.

A civil attorney representing Endeavor was present when the police interviewed Ortega, along with the doctor’s criminal attorney, according to a police report. Yet Ortega went back to work the next day, according to a lawsuit filed by a former patient who alleged Ortega sexually assaulted her on Aug. 12, the day after police questioned him. Endeavor agreed to a settlement in that lawsuit, court records show.

Ortega went on leave Aug. 14, 2017, and resigned from Endeavor about a year later, Ortega said in response to questions raised in one of the lawsuits against him. The resignation came around the time he was indicted in 2018 on one charge of criminal sexual assault, related to the woman who went to police in early 2017.

Shortly after Ortega was indicted, the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation temporarily suspended his license. He was no longer allowed to practice medicine.

Connecting the dots

Jennifer said she was standing in her kitchen washing dishes when she saw a story on the news about Ortega that noted his arrest. She dropped the dish she was holding and ran to her bedroom, where she fell to the floor.

In the years since her appointment, Jennifer had felt depressed and experienced debilitating migraines. She said she had panic attacks so severe they sent her to the emergency room.

“It feels like you’re failing your children, you’re failing your husband, you’re failing yourself because you can’t figure out what’s wrong with you,” Jennifer told the Tribune.

It wasn’t until she saw his photograph on her television screen that it all started to make sense.

“I never would have connected the dots,” she said. “It was almost like a sense of relief. I wasn’t crazy.”

She then went to Lincolnwood police. Jennifer and her husband also filed a lawsuit against Ortega and Endeavor that was settled in July 2023. The amount of the settlement is confidential, and Jennifer spoke with the Tribune before the case was settled.

Carrie Ward, CEO of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said women who experience sexual abuse often don’t come forward right away.

Women may worry they’ll be blamed or won’t be believed over a doctor, Ward said. And when assault occurs at the hands of a medical provider, she said, it sometimes can take a while for the victim to sort out what was and wasn’t appropriate about the encounter.

“They’re expecting to be safe,” Ward said. “I think that does contribute to confusion for folks harmed in that setting.”

About 14 months after Ortega’s 2018 arrest, he was charged with a second count of criminal sexual assault related to Jennifer’s allegations.

At the 2021 hearing where he submitted his guilty pleas to charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, he tearfully told the courtroom: “As a physician … I had never intended to hurt anyone. Never, never. I sincerely apologize to the women who felt that I acted inappropriately.”

Jennifer’s attorneys asked Ortega in written questions, as part of her civil case, if he had sexually assaulted Jennifer.

“No,” Ortega answered last year. “I plead guilty to the charge based on advice of my attorney.”

He is now out of prison, and his medical license has been permanently revoked.

Silence and settlements

According to the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, there have been 21 out-of-court settlements related to medical malpractice claims involving Ortega between December 2019 and March 2021 totaling more than $4.8 million.

Separately, in court, Endeavor and Ortega have reached settlement agreements in 21 lawsuits brought by women over the last five years, court records show. The settlement amounts have not been made public, and Endeavor’s recent financial statements make no mention of them.

Meanwhile, the Tribune found no records to indicate that Endeavor has been disciplined by the state or other regulators for its handling of the allegations against him.

Attorney Patrick Viktora, representing Endeavor Health, leaves a courtroom in the Daley Center in the Loop in January. Multiple former patients of Fabio Ortega have sued the health system. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Attorney Patrick Viktora, representing Endeavor Health, leaves a courtroom in the Daley Center in the Loop in January. Multiple former patients of Fabio Ortega have sued the health system. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

That may be partly because of a loophole in Illinois law.

If a hospital worker or staff member has “reasonable cause to believe” a patient may have been abused at the hospital, the worker is required by law to report it to a hospital administrator. The hospital is then supposed to report the allegation of abuse to the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the hospital must take steps to protect patients, such as by “removing suspected violators from further patient contact” while hospital officials conduct a review. Hospitals may be required to come up with a corrective plan if the department’s investigation finds problems.

But the allegation brought to police in 2017 involved an appointment with Ortega at an Endeavor clinic — not at a hospital. And state law does not require clinics and independent doctors’ offices to report allegations of abuse to the public health department.

The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requires many medical facilities — including the two clinics where Ortega mostly practiced — to protect patients from abuse, and facilities can be cited for failing to do so. Federal records do not show any patient abuse citations against Endeavor related to Ortega.

The federal agency did cite Endeavor late last year after a woman alleged sexually inappropriate conduct by a patient care technician at Evanston Hospital. An investigation by the state health department found in October that the hospital did not have a written system in place for handling sexual abuse allegations. Endeavor submitted a corrective plan that included enhanced training and a new policy on how to handle sexual abuse allegations.

In a statement to the Tribune, Endeavor said its hospitals already had written policies and processes on how to handle abuse allegations. “Nevertheless, we did update our policy to add specific information in the written policy for escalating allegations of ‘sexual abuse,’” the statement said.

Endeavor has never publicly announced changes in its policies or procedures related to what happened with Ortega. And in addition to the confidential settlements reached with his patients, the Tribune found attorneys for Endeavor have also sought to control what information about lawsuits is accessible to the public before they are settled.

Court records show that, at a May 2023 court hearing related to the civil cases, a lawyer for Endeavor raised concerns about former patients of Ortega’s having “been to the media.” The judge then issued a verbal protective order that “prohibits any dissemination” of discovery documents in the case except to the attorneys and certain others involved.

One of the pending cases the judge and attorneys continue to discuss is Victoria’s — the woman who alleges Ortega assaulted her in July 2017, months after Endeavor became aware the doctor was under police investigation.

Victoria was uncomfortable about going to that July appointment, she said in an interview. At an appointment with Ortega eight months earlier, she contends in her lawsuit, he asked her questions about her orgasms and sexual history while touching her intimately.

But by July she needed to visit a gynecologist urgently, she told the Tribune. In her lawsuit, Victoria alleges that she asked if her partner could go into the exam room with her but was told no.

“​​The least they could have done was have someone in the room with me,” Victoria told the Tribune. “Protect him or protect me, but take a stance and have a chaperone there. I don’t think that’s asking too much.”

When Victoria learned in April 2023 that Ortega had pleaded guilty to sexual abuse, she understood that she too had been harmed by him, according to her lawsuit.

Victoria realized she wasn’t alone, she told the Tribune — she wasn’t the only one who felt victimized by Ortega and Endeavor. She decided to reach out to Holder, the attorney, and file a lawsuit.

Her lawsuit is, at the moment, the only pending lawsuit against Endeavor and Ortega, after 21 others settled. Five lawsuits against Ortega and/or Swedish Hospital are also still pending.

Two of the settled lawsuits were filed by women who, like Victoria, alleged that Ortega sexually assaulted them at Endeavor facilities while he was under police investigation in 2017.

“I would like to see (Endeavor) held accountable since they knew, and did nothing about it to protect me,” Victoria said. “It’s an abuse of power. It’s looking the other way.”


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15680954 2024-03-03T05:00:50+00:00 2024-03-11T14:11:16+00:00
Medical misconduct: Read the investigation on sexual abuse by providers https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/02/25/medical-misconduct-investigation/ Sun, 25 Feb 2024 14:32:41 +0000 https://www.chicagotribune.com/?p=15671691 Multiple well-known Illinois health systems have allowed workers accused of sexually abusing patients to keep providing care, a yearlong Tribune investigation has found.

And while some medical systems in other states have reckoned publicly with their failures, Illinois health care providers have quietly settled lawsuits, entered into confidentiality agreements with patients and often refused to acknowledge wrongdoing.

“You would hope that a hospital organization or health care provider organization would be more invested in rooting out bad apples,” said one state legislator. “As we’ve seen in the priesthood and school systems and police departments, it’s easier to just hide bad behavior and hope it goes away.”

The Tribune also found efforts by state government to hold providers accountable have fallen short, largely leaving hospital systems to decide on their own how to balance patient safety with their reputations and financial interests.

“Susan” stands with her late mother’s wheelchair on Feb. 5 at the Skokie Courthouse, where her mother testified about being sexually assaulted by a nurse at Glenbrook Hospital. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Patients reported sexual abuse by medical providers. Health care systems let them keep working.

Failures by health systems to respond adequately to abuse allegations had devastating consequences for victims, who felt betrayed by institutions they had trusted with their health and safety.

The daughter of one woman who was victimized at age 76 by nurse David Giurgiu said her mother was devastated when she learned Giurgiu had allegedly abused another patient at Glenbrook Hospital. It wasn’t until the second allegation that the hospital fired him.

“That made everything worse,” the daughter said. “She was like, ‘If they just would have believed me, this wouldn’t have happened to another woman.’” Read part one of our investigation.

 

Lisa Eller stands near the former Yorkville office of Dr. Haohua Yang, who was charged with criminal sexual abuse and criminal sexual assault after she and other patients went to police about his behavior. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Lisa Eller stands near the former Yorkville office of Dr. Haohua Yang, who was charged with criminal sexual abuse and criminal sexual assault after she and other patients went to police about his behavior. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Failure to protect: Flawed state oversight lets doctors accused of abuse continue to see patients

Doctors and other health care providers accused by patients of sexual misconduct kept practicing – sometimes for years – because of gaps in Illinois laws and a licensing agency that can be slow to take disciplinary action, part two of a Tribune investigation found.

The providers went on to harm additional patients, in some cases, as their licenses remained in good standing with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

Illinois law requires hospital officials who learn of abuse allegations to take action to protect patients, but the Tribune found that some medical providers who work outside those settings were left to operate largely unchecked until they were charged with a crime. Read part two of our investigation.

 

"Victoria" is one of at least 30 women who have filed lawsuits alleging that Dr. Fabio Ortega sexually assaulted them during exams. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
“Victoria” is one of at least 30 women who have filed lawsuits alleging that Dr. Fabio Ortega sexually assaulted them during exams. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Former patients of Fabio Ortega say Endeavor Health failed to protect them from an abusive doctor

At least 30 women have filed lawsuits alleging that Dr. Fabio Ortega sexually assaulted them during appointments over a span of three decades at various Endeavor Health locations and, before that, at Swedish Hospital in Chicago. Most of the lawsuits allege that Endeavor and Swedish either knew or should have known that Ortega was a danger to patients and failed to protect them.

Now a Tribune investigation has pieced together the fullest picture yet of Ortega’s troubled history with patients and Endeavor’s pivotal role in keeping the doctor in place, with access to vulnerable female patients, despite multiple complaints.

Endeavor, formerly NorthShore University HealthSystem, has never publicly admitted any wrongdoing or error in its handling of Ortega and the allegations against him. Read part three of our investigation.

 

Cheryl Stevenson, center, a licensed practical nurse and chaperone, watches as Dr. Hepsi Kalapala, right, examines Quying Holmes at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in October. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Cheryl Stevenson, center, a licensed practical nurse and chaperone, watches as Dr. Hepsi Kalapala, right, examines Quying Holmes at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in October. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Chaperones may offer one solution to sexual abuse of patients by medical providers

Some medical experts and survivors of sexual abuse say broader use of chaperones may be one way to prevent misconduct.

In the past, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that chaperones be used when patients or doctors requested them. But in late 2019, the college changed its position, recommending that chaperones be present for all breast, genital and rectal exams with a few exceptions, such as during medical emergencies. Often, nurses or medical assistants serve as chaperones in addition to their other duties.

“Given the profoundly negative effect of sexual misconduct on patients and the medical profession and the association between misconduct and the absence of a chaperone, ACOG now believes that the routine use of chaperones is needed for the protection of patients and obstetrician-gynecologists,” the college wrote in 2019. Read part four of our investigation.

 


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15671691 2024-02-25T08:32:41+00:00 2024-03-26T18:17:23+00:00
Failure to protect https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/02/25/doctor-abuse-idfpr/ Sun, 25 Feb 2024 11:00:35 +0000 https://www.chicagotribune.com/?p=15651405 Editor’s note: This story includes descriptions of sexual abuse.

Doctors and other health care providers accused by patients of sexual misconduct kept practicing – sometimes for years – because of gaps in Illinois laws and a licensing agency that can be slow to take disciplinary action, a Tribune investigation has found.

The providers went on to harm additional patients, in some cases, as their licenses remained in good standing with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

Though Illinois law requires hospital officials who learn of abuse allegations to take action to protect patients, the Tribune found that some medical providers who work outside those settings were left to operate largely unchecked until they were charged with a crime.

In one case, an independent doctor continued seeing patients for two and a half years as several patients complained to police about his behavior. State law does not require police or prosecutors to notify the licensing agency of investigations into health care providers, only of certain criminal charges.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, meanwhile, sometimes took years to discipline medical providers accused of sexual misconduct.

The agency did not take action against a nurse’s license for more than two years after learning he had been fired from a hospital over allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior. The nurse went on to face criminal sexual abuse charges after a woman alleged he sexually assaulted her while providing in-home care.

The agency did not suspend the license of a chiropractor until more than two years after he was found guilty of battery stemming from sexual contact with a patient. When it did finally act, the agency blamed the delay in part on the practitioner for failing to notify the agency of the outcome of his criminal case.

Illinois law does not require medical providers to tell patients they are under police investigation or, in many cases, that they have faced discipline from the state, making it difficult for patients to make informed decisions about whom to entrust with their care. Although the agency maintains a website where patients can look up the status of a provider’s license, it is often not clear why the person was disciplined.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the agency responsible for licensing and disciplining doctors and some other health care workers, operates out of this Springfield office building. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the agency responsible for licensing and disciplining doctors and some other health care workers, operates out of this Springfield office building. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

The site sometimes fails to disclose the full extent of the allegations against doctors, using euphemistic phrases such as “inappropriate conduct” and “boundary violations” to describe their actions. The reasons for discipline are often described in a line or two. Some other states post full disciplinary reports online and require doctors who are on probation to inform patients, which is not the case in Illinois.

In California, a 2019 law requires doctors to notify patients if their license is on probation for sexual misconduct, a move fueled in part by the #MeToo movement and media coverage of Dr. George Tyndall’s decades of alleged abuse at the University of Southern California. In Kentucky and Iowa, the medical licensing boards post disciplinary documents online that spell out accusations against health care professionals.

“I think that there needs to be more transparency,” said state Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, who chairs the Senate Public Health Committee. “It seems like there have been too many loopholes that really need to be tightened up to protect people.”

The Tribune reported last Sunday that several well-known health care systems failed to remove providers from patient care after learning of sexual misconduct allegations, and that those institutions faced few meaningful consequences from the state for their actions. One 2005 law that would help document and track abuse allegations and other problems at hospitals has yet to be implemented.

“When we fail to examine the full story arc of an issue, that’s how we end up with these holes,” said Illinois Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, who is now working with the Illinois Department of Public Health on legislation to require doctors offices and satellite clinics to report patient abuse allegations to the state under the same rules that apply to hospitals. “What you just described to me is a patchwork where the patchwork itself has holes in it.”

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, right, chats with state Rep. Steve Reick before the start of a committee meeting in the state Capitol this month in Springfield. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, right, chats with state Rep. Steve Reick before the start of a committee meeting in the state Capitol this month in Springfield. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Chris Slaby, said in a statement that actions in many of the cases identified by the Tribune took place under prior administrations and the agency is “committed to protecting the public from professionals who have sexually assaulted patients.”

He said the agency has expanded resources to investigate complaints in recent years, including by adding four attorneys to the health and medical prosecutions teams. Camile Lindsay, the new acting director of the department’s Division of Professional Regulation, has expedited temporary suspensions in some cases by allowing rulings based on documented evidence instead of requiring a trial proceeding, he wrote.

Slaby said that although prosecutors are supposed to notify the department when medical providers are indicted on sexual assault charges, “they often fail to do so.” Slaby ​​acknowledged that the agency does not have to wait for criminal charges to take disciplinary action but noted that law enforcement often does not choose to notify the state about investigations still in progress. Lindsay is reaching out to law enforcement to encourage more reporting, Slaby said.

The agency is also pursuing legislation, Slaby said, that would require health care facilities to report allegations of sexual assault or misconduct to the agency within 24 hours, as well as requiring hospitals to report to the agency more quickly when they fire licensed health care workers or change their duties for certain reasons, such as when the person was found to have threatened patient care.

Under investigation, still providing care

One patient was so upset after her appointment with Dr. Haohua Yang that she vomited outside her car after talking about it with a Yorkville police officer.

She had made the October 2012 appointment because of lower back pain and brought along her 2-year-old son. As the little boy slept nearby, the doctor touched her vaginal area with an ungloved hand, she told police.

The woman wasn’t the first patient to contact the police about Yang, an internist who ran his own practice out of an office in suburban Yorkville. Several months earlier, another patient experiencing back pain had told police the doctor touched her inappropriately during an appointment and had an erection she could feel and see.

If Yang worked at a hospital, officials there who learned of a patient’s abuse allegation would be required by law to report it to the Illinois Department of Public Health, triggering an investigation. That requirement didn’t apply, however, to Yang’s independent practice.

The Illinois Department of Public Health is responsible for investigating how hospitals respond to patients' abuse allegations, but that requirement does not apply to other health care settings. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
The Illinois Department of Public Health is responsible for investigating how hospitals respond to patients’ abuse allegations, but that requirement does not apply to other health care settings. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

And although a report of abuse can lead to action by the licensing agency, Slaby said there were no records to indicate the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation knew at the time about the patients’ allegations.

If the agency is notified of certain criminal charges against a provider, it is supposed to require the provider to use a chaperone while caring for patients until the case is resolved. Patients should also be notified that there are criminal charges and must acknowledge the chaperone requirement in writing.

But with no charges filed against Yang after the first two reports to police, the doctor continued to see patients alone in exam rooms, police records show.

In January 2014, a third patient complained about Yang. Police talked to the doctor in May of that year, but he kept seeing patients until he was arrested in mid-December, records show. One day before Kendall County prosecutors issued formal charges against Yang – eight counts of criminal sexual abuse and criminal sexual assault – Yorkville police notified the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

More charges would follow. In total, prosecutors brought charges of criminal sexual abuse and criminal sexual assault stemming from appointments with 17 patients, most of which occurred after the first patient reported the incident to law enforcement.

In January 2017, a judge acquitted Yang of sexually assaulting the woman who got sick after talking to police about her appointment. The judge ruled that he had not found beyond a reasonable doubt that sexual penetration occurred, which he said was required for a sexual assault conviction.

That November, Yang pleaded guilty to three counts of felony aggravated battery involving three other patients, and prosecutors dismissed the remaining charges against him. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail and a year of probation.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation temporarily suspended Yang’s license on Dec. 17, 2014, a day after formal charges were filed. Yorkville police had notified the agency of the imminent charges two days earlier, on Dec. 15, according to a police report.

It was a short delay, but swifter action on Yang’s license might have made a difference for at least one patient.

During the two days before Yang turned himself in to police on Dec. 17 to face the criminal charges, a grandmother took a minor patient to see him for a required school sports physical, she later told police.

The grandmother, who was present for the exam, told police that Yang had her granddaughter lie on a table, placed his hands under the girl’s underwear to feel for an artery and blocked the grandmother’s view partway through the examination, records show.

Among the many criminal charges filed against Yang was one count of predatory criminal sexual assault related to the allegation involving this girl, according to police records. The charge was one of those dismissed after Yang’s guilty plea.

Slaby said the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation is required to have sufficient evidence to prove an allegation before it can summarily suspend a medical provider’s license, and achieving that “isn’t feasible” in a two-day period. A chaperone order – which requires a provider to be monitored during patient care – is one of the department’s “strongest tools,” Slaby said, but it can be issued only after a license holder is criminally charged.

Yang’s license was revoked after his conviction. “I’m completely innocent,” Yang said when contacted by the Tribune. He declined to comment further.

One of Yang’s former patients, 59-year-old Lisa Eller, said the doctor’s actions left a lasting mark on her life. The Tribune is using her name with her consent.

Eller said she received what she considered to be great care from Yang – at first. But over time, she noticed some odd things about the way the doctor behaved. Yang was fond of giving hugs, she said. He’d tell her she was beautiful. Sometimes, he’d rest a hand on her thigh while he listened to her breathe during checkups, Eller said. She let it go because she trusted him, she said.

Lisa Eller, shown in January at a park near her Yorkville home, said she now has trouble trusting doctors, interfering with her care for advanced emphysema. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Lisa Eller, shown in January at a park near her Yorkville home, said she now has trouble trusting doctors, interfering with her care for advanced emphysema. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

After seeing that Yang had been arrested, Eller decided to go to police. Among her allegations was that Yang put his mouth on her nipples during a 2013 breast exam, a police report shows. Three of the charges against Yang, including criminal sexual assault and abuse, were related to his treatment of Eller, according to police records. Those charges were ultimately dismissed as a result of his plea agreement.

Now Eller has advanced emphysema, she said. Every breath she takes hurts. But what she experienced with Yang has made her suspicious of doctors, interfering with her medical care.

“Now that I really need them, with my health being so bad, I can’t trust them,” Eller said. “I can’t stand for any doctor to touch me.”

Delays in action

Unlike Yang, registered nurse Thomas Trunk was working for a hospital when a patient complained that he had talked to her about sex toys and begun to expose himself to her, according to a police report.

Rush University Medical Center fired Trunk in August 2016 and reported the firing to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation on Sept. 13, according to Rush spokesperson Charlie Jolie.

But the agency took no public action at that point against Trunk’s license, and within about three months of his termination he began working at a new job with Advocate Health Care’s home care division.

Trunk told Advocate he left Rush because of a family emergency, according to court records. Advocate said in a court document that it checked the status of Trunk’s license before hiring him and did not find any discipline on his record, and that it used a background check company to verify Trunk’s prior employment at Rush.

Rush University Medical Center reported in 2016 that it fired nurse Thomas Trunk over a patient's allegations of inappropriate conduct. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation did not file a complaint related to those allegations until 2018. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Rush University Medical Center reported in 2016 that it fired nurse Thomas Trunk over a patient’s allegations of inappropriate conduct. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation did not file a complaint related to those allegations until 2018. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Trouble followed the nurse at his new job. In early 2018, Trunk propositioned a patient over a text message, according to a lawsuit she later filed. She rebuffed the request, sending a message stating: “NO that would not be appropriate. I’m really a very happily married woman.” Trunk apologized, later adding that he had crossed a line and it would not happen again, according to court records.

Not long afterward, Trunk came to the patient’s home for an appointment in April 2018, according to the lawsuit. The patient later said in a deposition that the nurse forcibly stuck his tongue in her mouth, exposed his penis and made her touch him after administering medicine that made her begin to slip out of consciousness.

“I actually was scared,” the woman said in a 2021 deposition. “After he administered the Benadryl, and he knew that I would not be able to scream out or shout out for my husband, he approached the bed. … I couldn’t push him off. I couldn’t fight him off.”

According to court records, the patient’s husband told Advocate there had been “some serious issues,” without describing what happened, and Trunk was not to return to their home. Police records obtained by the Tribune also show that a different patient told Advocate that Trunk had made romantic advances while providing in-home care. Advocate was not required to report these allegations to the state health department because the alleged incidents did not occur within hospital walls.

In a statement sent to the Tribune, Advocate said it suspended Trunk immediately after being notified of the patient’s lawsuit in August 2018 and learning details of her allegations; it fired him the following month. The lawsuit, which alleges Advocate should have known Trunk was being untruthful about his reasons for leaving Rush, is still pending.

“Patient safety is our top priority, and our providers and teammates must adhere to a code of conduct that guides ethical and professional behavior,” Advocate said in a statement. “When we’re made aware of an accusation of misconduct, we act quickly to investigate and take appropriate action, including suspending or firing a teammate when appropriate.”

Meanwhile, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation did not file a complaint against Trunk related to his conduct at Rush until October 2018, more than two years after Rush reported firing him. The agency didn’t take disciplinary action against Trunk’s nursing license until August 2019 when it issued a reprimand “due to unprofessional conduct.”

During this period, Trunk began working at Northwestern Medicine, spokesperson Christopher King confirmed in a statement. When it hired Trunk in November 2018, Northwestern was “unaware of any previous allegations,” the statement said. King said no allegations of wrongdoing were associated with Trunk’s employment at Northwestern, which ended in December 2019 for reasons King would not discuss.

Trunk was charged in November 2019 with criminal sexual abuse. The state agency issued a chaperone order, and it went on to permanently revoke his nursing license after he was convicted in late 2020 of misdemeanor battery. Trunk received a sentence of probation.

Trunk did not respond to requests for comment made through his attorneys.

In a statement, Slaby said the case was delayed at the agency “due to being mishandled by a staff member who resigned before disciplinary action could be taken” against the staff member.

The agency was also slow to discipline Arlington Heights chiropractor Michael Davenport, who was charged with misdemeanor battery in June 2018 after a patient – who also worked for Davenport’s practice – complained that Davenport had touched and put his mouth on the patient’s genitals during chiropractic treatment, according to state disciplinary records.

The chiropractor was found guilty and sentenced in December 2018 under conditions that allowed him to avoid a conviction if he completed a term of court supervision.

But Davenport, who had continued to operate his practice and treat patients, was not disciplined by the licensing agency until May 2021, when it temporarily suspended his license. The agency, which acknowledged receiving a complaint against Davenport in 2018, said it didn’t learn until later about the outcome of his criminal case.

Davenport requested that the agency drop the temporary suspension, noting that the decision was based on allegations the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation became aware of three years prior and that no action was taken in the interim.

“Three years after the incident they say I’m an immediate threat,” Davenport said in a Tribune interview. “How can you do that when nothing has happened?”

Running Iron Performance in Arlington Heights is owned by chiropractor Michael Davenport. His chiropractic physician license is currently suspended. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Running Iron Performance in Arlington Heights is owned by chiropractor Michael Davenport. His chiropractic physician license is currently suspended. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

In response to Davenport’s request, the agency noted that he had failed to notify the state of the outcome of his criminal case and ultimately denied his appeal. State laws require doctors and nurses to report any adverse action taken against them by any health care institution or law enforcement agency.

Davenport “should not be rewarded for failing to notify the Department of the criminal finding of guilt against him especially since the victim was a patient and his crime was directly related to his practice,” the department wrote.

Records show the state agency referred Davenport’s case to its investigations unit after learning of a civil settlement involving Davenport in 2019. Slaby would not discuss details of the case but said civil settlements can complicate investigations in part because they sometimes include confidentiality clauses. Slaby said the department “moved quickly” after learning what happened in the criminal case.

The agency suspended Davenport’s license for a minimum of 18 months “due to a sexual boundary violation with a patient of his practice.”

Davenport told the Tribune the incident with the patient was “not sexual misconduct” and that he has paid his dues and wants to move on. In an email to the Tribune, an attorney for Davenport stated the case was “exceptionally complicated” and “would be difficult to describe fairly in a newspaper article.”

Davenport’s license remains suspended.

Transparency failings

Patients can, in theory, look up any medical provider on the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s website to see if the agency has taken disciplinary action on their license, and why.

But the brief reasons provided for the state’s disciplinary actions often fail to paint a clear picture of the allegations against health care providers. To obtain additional information about allegations that led to discipline, reporters had to file public records requests with the state agency and various police departments.

Take Dr. Pavan Bejgum, a physician from downstate Metropolis whose license shows up as being suspended for a minimum of four years based on “inappropriate conduct with a patient of his practice.”

That’s the only description on the Illinois agency’s website. But according to documents posted online by the Board of Medical Licensure in Kentucky, where Bejgum was also licensed to practice, the Illinois agency disciplined him in November 2021 after hearing testimony from a former patient who alleged he kissed her neck and put an ungloved finger on her vagina during an appointment three years earlier. The Illinois agency also learned that Bejgum had agreed to a two-year civil no-contact order the patient sought in court.

Bejgum did not respond to a request for comment the Tribune sent to his attorney.

In the case of Dr. Ala Albazzaz, the public can see on the agency’s website that he was fined $30,000 and suspended from practicing medicine between December 1997 and June 2008 for “fondling female patients during examinations” and that his license remains on probationary status.

What the website doesn’t say is that the suspension of his license came after the agency heard testimony from six patients who said he engaged in sexual behavior during their pelvic, rectal or vaginal exams, leaving them “embarrassed, shocked, stunned, degraded and/or humiliated as a result,” according to state records obtained by the Tribune through a public records request.

Cook County prosecutors filed dozens of charges accusing Albazzaz of touching 38 women inappropriately during exams from the late 1980s into the early 1990s, according to Tribune reporting at the time. The doctor was acquitted in 1990 after a bench trial related to one patient’s complaint and acquitted again in 1995 after a jury trial based on four women’s allegations. Prosecutors then dismissed the remaining charges, the Tribune reported.

In 1997, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended Albazzaz’s license. Although a criminal conviction requires a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the agency needs to prove at a disciplinary hearing only that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that a violation occurred, Slaby said.

Before the department agreed to end the suspension in 2008, a psychiatrist recommended that the agency bar Albazzaz from doing OB-GYN examinations as he found that Albazzaz, “while remorseful, did minimize his role as a misunderstanding despite the magnitude of evidence against him,” according to state records. Another psychiatrist opined that Albazzaz could return to practicing medicine with “no danger or threat to society.” When Albazzaz’s license was restored, the department did not restrict him from doing OB-GYN exams.

His license remains on probation, and the agency requires that a female attendant monitor his exams with female patients, state records show.

Albazzaz is now facing a new lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct. The plaintiff, Pamela Harris, contends in her 2022 suit that the doctor fondled her breast during an in-home appointment two years earlier.

Harris, who agreed to be identified by name in this story, said in an interview that she doesn’t understand why the state didn’t revoke the doctor’s license.

“He shouldn’t have been allowed to practice,” said Harris, who told the Tribune she has multiple health conditions, including congestive heart failure. She said she believes “he shouldn’t be allowed to have any female patients at all.”

Harris went to Wheeling police with her allegation in January 2020. Police closed the case that September, records show; Albazzaz was not criminally charged.

Pamela Harris, left, receives a lymph drainage massage from a trusted physical therapist, Amy Miller of Northwest Community Hospital Physical Rehabilitation Services in Rolling Meadows. Harris has filed suit against a doctor not connected with Endeavor Health Northwest Community Hospital, alleging that he touched her inappropriately. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Pamela Harris, left, receives a lymph drainage massage from a trusted physical therapist, Amy Miller of Northwest Community Hospital Physical Rehabilitation Services in Rolling Meadows. Harris has filed suit against a doctor not connected with Endeavor Health Northwest Community Hospital, alleging that he touched her inappropriately. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Albazzaz did not respond directly to requests for comment for this story. In a letter to a Tribune attorney, a lawyer for Albazzaz did not address the disciplinary action taken on Albazzaz’s medical license but said Albazzaz had been cleared of criminal conduct and described allegations by patients against Albazzaz as “false.”

In a statement sent to the Tribune, Slaby said the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation can permanently revoke a doctor’s license only after certain types of criminal convictions, and Albazzaz was never convicted of a crime.

What the agency’s website says now about Albazzaz’s probationary status is hard to parse. It states that Albazzaz is currently on probation “due to allegations that an Integrity Agreement Respondent entered into with the Department of Healthcare and Family Services constitutes an adverse action by a State Agency.”

Left unsaid is that the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which provides health care coverage to residents who qualify for Medicaid, had reached an agreement with Albazzaz in 2012 that allowed him to resume caring for patients in the Illinois Medical Assistance Program as long as he did not treat any women for two years. Albazzaz’s license remained on probation partly because he did not notify the licensing agency of the terms of that agreement, state records show.

The lack of detailed information on the department’s license lookup seems to protect providers who were disciplined more than the patients who allege they were abused, said Carrie Ward, CEO of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Members of the public might not take the extra step of filing a public records request for a disciplinary report, or even know they can, she said.

“More information is always better, and more easily accessible information, so folks can make informed decisions about who they might want to interact with,” Ward said.

Slaby said that the short summaries available on the website are based on the law or rule that was violated or are sometimes negotiated if a medical professional enters into an agreed order, and that the department “readily provides” disciplinary reports upon request.

“Unfortunately, due to technology system constraints IDFPR does not currently have the capability of linking a disciplinary order to an entry on its License Lookup tool,” he wrote.

DePaul University student Samantha Moilanen contributed to this report.


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