Trust in Our Systems of Care
A Call to Action for Patient Allies
I think I first saw the headlines about Dr. Tyndall in 2018. This is a recent one: Former USC gynecologist George Tyndall charged with 29 felonies in sex abuse case
UCLA came later, probably even this year. A recent headline reads: 9 more women file lawsuits accusing ex-UCLA gynecologist of sexual assault
Just this last week, Cedars-Sinai broke the news of a scandal with one of their directors and a headline read: Doctor Who Worked At Cedars-Sinai Facing Child Pornography Charges
Three major Los Angeles medical institutions are being forced to reckon with sexual abuse scandals, and it’s not ok. We need to acknowledge the patient’s plight and loss of trust when a medical abuse scandal ‘rule of three’ goes down.
The people of Los Angeles deserve better than to have their care entrusted to abusers and pedophiles. As does everyone, I might add. That being said, I don’t know how to cut through the sludge of ‘healthcare is a business’ to impress upon people how devastating I find these claims.
Because while I attended UCLA as an undergraduate from 2008–2012, I also got diagnosed and treated there for brain cancer starting in 2014. I got a second opinion for said tumor from Cedars-Sinai, and I have and am continuing to work with USC through both their HEAL and AYA programs. These three major Los Angeles medical institutions honestly get credit from me for saving my life. I suppose I just have to learn to square that with the skeletons that are out, and hope that there aren’t more inside the closet.
Because I cannot afford to lose trust in these places. The average patient (much less a chronic patient) has no choice but to put trust in caretakers, in doctors, in administrators, and yes even in the higher-ups that we never see.
Don’t get me wrong- I don’t like the dynamic, and I will fight for patient rights and advocacy till I’m in my grave. But you cannot tell me that a patient who picks up a prescription, or sits down for a blood draw, or gets wheeled back for surgery has any choice in having to trust that that’s the right medication, that the phlebotomist or nurse won’t take their frustration out on your veins, or that the surgical team won’t harm or violate your unconscious body. It is a system of very fragile, but very binding trust. And it can be snapped in an instant.
Which is precisely why these scandals by people who have supposedly sworn to “abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm,” is devastating. How can a patient at any institution believe in the care that they are getting or believe that they are entrusting their health and bodies to people and places who really do have their best interests at heart?
I believe healthcare is a system that should be built from the ground up: based in lived experience, knowledge and facts from the patient to the med student to the doctor to the director, etc. But, I don’t live in Marianne Williamson’s fantasy healthcare world. I live in the real word, where patients are re-labeled consumers and healthcare plans are called marketplaces and pharmaceuticals are peddled to patients for capital gain.
So I’m at a loss. Because as any chronic patient, I knew the fallacies of the system before these scandals broke. And I know that while most healthcare professionals are in it for the right reasons- there are some bad eggs. And when those bad eggs are concentrated within the basket of a single city, the stink resonates.
It resonates because it shows that while this is just three institutions within a single city; there are hospitals and doctors offices and wellness centers and healthcare clinics across not only the rest of Los Angeles, but the country…. It demonstrates the assumed inherent toxicity at the top of this capitalist food chain. So then how, how can we as patients be expected to entrust our lives to these providers??
We will because we have to, and because we have always had to. Because patients already didn’t have a choice in this power dynamic. But now that we’ve potentially lost our trust as well, it’s up to the entirety of the rest of the medical profession to prove us wrong.
Don’t worry, your directors won’t lose business- like I said we don’t have a choice. But they will lose patient confidence. They will lose patient referrals. And they will lose patient satisfaction, which is perhaps at the bottom of their list, but you know what? We’ve got to take our power grabs where we can grab ‘em!
So I’m calling on all the good eggs- the medical students, the interns, the nurses, phlebotomists, techs, doctors, researchers, and all administrators who believe in your profession, who truly do want to help people- I know you’re out there and I know you care about your patients.
Please, please let us know by standing up and standing tall. Please let us know that you won’t stand idly by as your institutions allow individuals to prey upon an already vulnerable population. Please say you will speak out when you see something. Please say you will support your patients if they come to you with sensitive information. Please, as our best allies in this system, prioritize our lives over your job.
