The Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a $1.3 million payment to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman who was sexually molested by a physician dubbed “Dr. Pervert” by nurses at a county health clinic.
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said nurses at the clinic “knew about this guy and called him Dr. Pervert among themselves,” but were afraid to speak up.
A Department of Health Services practice of having a chaperone accompany patients during medical examinations did nothing to protect the plaintiff, according to Kuehl.
“In the case of this particular person, who wasn’t chaperoned, the doctor asked the chaperone to leave in more than one exam,” Kuehl told her colleagues.
The summary provided to the board by county attorneys identified the patient as Jane Doe and did not give her age, nor the name of the doctor or clinic. However, the lawsuit filed by the woman and her husband in 2013 names Dr. Steve R. Leong as a defendant alongside the county.
The suit alleged that the county was negligent in hiring and retaining Leong, who “touched her inappropriately,” according to the summary provided to the board.
Someone had reported the doctor to the medical board in 2005, according to Kuehl. Since no disciplinary action was taken, others feared retaliation if they spoke out, she said.
Dr. Mitchell Katz, who heads the county hospital system and is seen as highly likely to be appointed to lead a consolidated county health agency, was visiting patients and unavailable to meet with the board Tuesday, according to one of his deputies.
The DHS representative said a practice of mandating chaperones for all exams, not only upon a patient’s request, would be made a formal policy.
Kuehl said more needed to be done, given doctors’ ability to intimidate nurses and patients, “not only to save the money we’re paying out but to save the patients.”
Supervisor Hilda Solis suggested setting up a system where staff could make anonymous reports.
“We can’t promote a hostile work environment,” Solis said.
Supervisor Michael Antonovich went further.
“We have no obligation to keep him employed,” Antonovich said of any physician preying on patients. “He should lose his medical license.”
As for Leong, who forcefully kissed and grabbed at least four patients, he is no longer working for the county, which severed its relationship with him in 2013, according to a DHS spokesman.
Leong was sentenced in 2013 to one month in jail and five years probation after pleading no contest to four misdemeanor counts each of false imprisonment and sexual exploitation of a patient.
The then-58-year-old doctor was also sentenced to 30 days of community labor and psychiatric counseling and ordered not to see any female patients and to stay away from witnesses and victims in the case.
His license has been restricted by the medical board, the DHS spokesman said.
The board unanimously voted to approve the legal settlement, but held off on approving a corrective action plan to prevent future incidents.
The department is expected to offer additional recommendations at a future meeting.
— Wire reports