Welcome, everyone! Nice to see you all again. This is the medical legal podcast.
Today, we'll be talking about a disturbing event that occurred at Sansom Health Clinic.
in Santa Barbara, California. What was so disturbing about it?
There are not times where I typically advocate for terminating.
Healthcare workers. I usually think that perhaps they needed more training.
More support, we're put in a. challenging situation where they did the best they could.
But in this one, it's a little bit different of a scenario.
How would you feel seeing an online video making fun of patients the day that you were seen in the office?
If it were anonymous, would you wonder if it were you, what they were talking about, what they were posting, including pictures?
How would it make you feel? Would you trust that location?
Would you want to return? A group of employees were terminated.
It looks like it involved at least 8 employees.
And what I like to say is, yes, in healthcare we can have jokes.
And if we have to, we sometimes have dark humor.
Were we making fun of the situation, that we're short-staffed, that we're working ourselves to the bone.
But it should never include. making fun of patients who are vulnerable, and we are often seeing patients on the worst day of their lives.
If you have to punch at all, punch up, not down.
This particular staff. Uh, were… Ultimately, terminated.
After an investigation was immediately put in place after the event was discovered.
And what happened was… On TikTok, there was a video.
showing patients bodily fluids on the paper that's put.
on the apparatus that we sit on when we go into.
a clinical appointment when we see our doctor, nurse practitioner, etc.
And it's particularly vulnerable for people who are having a gynecological.
procedure. Some type lubricant is used to insert the speculum.
Sometimes water. to, um, warm it up, sometimes things like that, so there could be liquid, and left on the paper was some sort of liquid substance.
was a discharge? Was it lubricant? Was it water? It could be a whole host of things. But what they did is they took multiple pictures and made faces and gestures and jokes.
And this is a vulnerable, intimate time for patients. You want to see that after your appointment.
Nobody should feel that they're being made fun of.
And how it started was… Are your patients allowed to leave you gifts?
So you thought, maybe it would be flowers, or chocolate, or things like that.
No, it was multiple different pictures with multiple staff members making faces, some sticking out their tongue and laughing and.
like I said, making hand gestures. So, showing possibly bodily fluids.
It's now a deleted post. made by a former employee that apparently, when it was posted, they were no longer an employee, so it looks like.
They did it after they stopped working there? There's not a lot of details about that at this point.
This was at Sansom Clinic. A non-profit outpatient care facility owned by Sutter Health.
Like we said, it was 8 workers mocking what appeared to be bodily fluid.
And they had things like. in the caption, are patients allowed to leave you gifts?
Make sure you leave your healthcare workers sweet gifts like these!
And they're pointing and smiling at a spot with their thumbs up.
Guess the substance was another. Statement made.
A spokesperson for the Sacramento-based health system Sutter Health said that although the original poster was not an employee at the time.
others who appeared in it were now terminated. And they did say it's unacceptable behavior and an outright violation of their policies, showing a lack of respect for their patients, and will not be tolerated.
The video spread over that weekend that it was originally shared.
Across platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, Reddit. and sparking an outpouring of anger among commenters.
Some of the comments, according to the LA Times, said things like, no place for shaming patients in medicine.
My question is, what is the culture of your clinic? Because why did so many employees feel comfortable participating in this?
Now, sadly, I think because there's no patient likeness or patient name, or patient data.
in it that they felt safe for some reason.
But they're not realizing the inherent dignity, privacy, and confidentiality.
Even though it's not revealed who the patient is, it still is violating that, right?
And what is the culture of the workplace? And, you know, they seem to have done the right thing and mitigate the risks.
at the larger leadership structural level, right? But… you know, it is a larger issue, and I don't know how they're handling it going forward. I imagine that they will be taking it very seriously. They seem to have done the right thing, they did an immediate investigation, and then a pretty quickly termination of the remainder of the people who were still employed there.
I don't know if they are medical assistants, nursing assistants.
nurses, LPNs, RNs, I didn't find that detail at this point, at the time of this recording.
But regardless, any of those roles should be taking something like this very seriously.
and not, you know, making jokes about it. Um, obviously, people question the participants' experts.
And it was reposted multiple times on other accounts through all different social media platforms, and then there were people doing stitches, people who.
talk about healthcare like myself, and ethical. Ethical means of healthcare, right?
Um, and it was really disturbing to most people, gratefully, right? Most people are ethical.
Um, the spokesperson did say the clinic remains steadfastly committed to patient privacy and dignity, as they should be, but that was not exhibited clearly in these videos.
And that they expect all team members to live our patient's first mission and uphold the highest standard.
of compassion, professionalism, and respect. We are using this inappropriate incident to reinforce our comprehensive policies with all our team members across the organization.
Which is exactly the right thing to do. And here is, you know, where we talk about.
What can we learn from these situations, right? We can talk about these things in a gossipy way, and go, oh, can you believe what so-and-so did? And of course.
fine, whatever, but. I like here at the Medical Legal Podcast to talk about what can we take away from this.
Why was this allowed? Why did so many people feel that this was okay and appropriate?
Um, you know, it shows such a disrespect to a patient during a vulnerable time, as we said, and an internal exam is invasive and private.
And it involved… it showed such unprofessionalism and a lack of privacy.
And here's the thing, there's one major lesson that I can bestow to anybody who wants to know.
As you know, my. Past legal advice is to always practice in the best interest of the patient's standard, right? You might say, oh, but they threaten this, and they thought this, and they said they might sue.
Sometimes a red flag situation where people say they might sue is the time where you really should question what they're asking you to do. Now, I realize this is a little off-topic, but I'm getting to the point of the best interest of patient standard.
You know, if you don't do this, if you don't discharge my family member right now, I'll sue you. And then you discharge the patient, and they fall down the stairs, and.
have a bad outcome. Well, you didn't practice in the best interest of the patient, you allowed the family member to kind of bully you into discharging a patient, and guess what? You going into the court and saying, oh, they wanted to go home.
is not gonna protect you, right? Because you didn't say, oh, wow, this patient is not ready to independently go home.
So, how does that relate to the best interest of the patient?
I would say, when you are in a healthcare setting as a professional, right, I'm not talking about you as a patient, we can talk about that on another day.
say, think twice before you bring out your phone, okay?
Don't take pictures, don't take videos with your personal phone.
We should only, in healthcare settings, be using encrypted devices allowed by the facility.
There are rules and regulations on what to do. So, for example, if we need to take a picture of a wound or an ulcer on the skin.
There is a process for using an encrypted device that links to Epic or Gateway or whatever portal that is used at that particular healthcare facility, and those are the only ones that are appropriate to use.
using on your phone and then transferring it is not ideal and not appropriate and not private, and not confidential, right? It's not HIPAA compliant.
Now, let's go back to the ANA Code of Ethics, the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics.
is the 10 provision code, newly published, there's… it's republished, renewed, you know.
every so many years. 2025 is the most recent version.
10 provisions that all nurses are expected to abide by. Provision 1 alone is the nurse practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and unique attributes of every person.
Does that sound like that was done in this situation?
If these are nurses, and even if they're not nurses, it's a basic tenet that should be followed in healthcare in general, right? Regardless of what your particular role is.
If you are, um, a medical assistant, right? Provision 3. The nurse establishes a trusting relationship and advocates for the rights, health, and safety of recipients of nursing care.
Did that situation abide by this? Probably not. Provision 5. The nurse has moral duties to self as a person of inherent dignity and worth, including expectation of a safe place to work that fosters flourishing authenticity.
or self at work, and self-respect through professional competence.
Now, you might not see a direct correlation to this scenario, but think about it.
If you worked there and you did not participate in that, would that.
you feel good? That would maybe say, wow, this is where I work, and this is the culture of the institution, and.
I don't want to be associated with that, and now people come in, and rightfully so, they are mistrusting, and they're questioning, and perhaps they're angry.
How do you manage that? How do we build the trust back? So, when healthcare clinicians.
lose trust, it hurts all the clinicians, mostly the patients, right? But the good clinicians.
have to defend themselves in these situations. So that is concerning. Mistrust in healthcare is a big thing that I think we all need to work.
at getting trust back into healthcare. Provision 9.
It says, nurses and their professional organizations work to enact and resource practices, policies, and legislation.
to promote social justice, eliminate health inequities, and facilitate human flourishing.
That could probably be a violation of that provision as well, right?
So, the latest version… of the ANA Code of Ethics, published 2025.
talks a lot about health, well-being, and flourishing, and care to the community. So, in that community art, you can think of a healthcare clinic as a community, right? The community of those patients.
who they trust and things like that. So that's the biggest issue, okay? So the takeaways from this particular case.
our do not violate the ANA code of ethics. It's always a good reminder to go back.
And see the provisions, and there's probably more provisions that it.
you know, that was just kind of a quick overview of some of the provisions. It probably relates to more than that, right?
always use an encrypted device. Um, pay attention to the culture of the institution. Are you promoting?
A professional, private, confidential. One that promotes health and well-being and is ethical, and has integrity.
And is your workplace. Now, sometimes we cannot. fix a sick system, and you have to figure out when it's right for you to leave.
But perhaps you can have a positive impact. Maybe the remaining employees.
and the leadership at the helm, right, who is the one that can trickle down, and.
make what happen should happen. um, can work to change the culture of that institution and figure out why so many people felt comfortable doing that.
So always remember to act in the best interest of the patient's standard.
and promote professionalism where possible. And lastly, do not take your personal phone out. Think twice.
If somebody says, take a picture. I think about working in healthcare.
We don't even take our phones out and take pictures and videos in the nurse's station, even though.
it's separate from where the patients are, right? Because if you take a picture, there could always be something in the background. Is there patient information?
on a screen, on a board that has their diagnosis, that has their doctor's name, any of that is private and all part of HIPAA.
So again, as I say many times, you'll get sick of hearing me always act in the best interest of the patient.
promote privacy, confidentiality. Empathy and compassion.
And that's that for today's session. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to the Medical Legal Podcast.
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Until next time, stay curious, stay informed, and take care. And to all my healthcare clinician listeners, always remember to practice in the best interests of every single patient.
Thank you.
