Specialists on legal guidelines defending affected person security give Washington state excessive marks for the sorts of info it’s prepared to reveal about docs accused of wrongdoing.
Like different states, Washington lets sufferers lookup docs by title on-line to learn any state allegations in opposition to them. However many years in the past, Washington lawmakers created a separate pathway that doesn’t depart the homework to sufferers, mandating that regulators concern a press launch every time an investigation ends in formal allegations being filed in opposition to a physician. Washington is alone in legally requiring such proactive outreach to the information media, the Federation of State Medical Boards says.
But an examination of Washington self-discipline information by KUOW and ProPublica discovered that no matter what the regulation requires, Washington fails to reliably name the general public’s consideration to critical misconduct allegations in opposition to docs who’ve been allowed to maintain working towards whereas their instances proceed.
Bulletins can take months to exit — and will not exit in any respect till after the case is resolved.
Take the case of Brooks Watson, a Richland, Washington, physician who the state medical board accused of constructing nonconsensual sexual contact, undesirable sexual advances or inappropriate sexual remarks to 5 of his coworkers over the course of 5 years.
Throughout one encounter in 2023, Washington Medical Fee information allege, Watson remoted a subordinate in his workplace and, with out her consent, kissed her, touched her breasts, put his arms down her pants, groped her vagina and uncovered his penis.
The fee despatched Watson a “assertion of costs” alleging sexual misconduct and unprofessional conduct on Aug. 19, 2025, and it amended the costs in June to incorporate an allegation that Watson had assaulted somebody at his dwelling.
But the fee issued no public announcement about Watson’s case for greater than 9 months after first submitting allegations.
Watson stays licensed to apply, and an internet supplier database run by the state reveals no ultimate determination on his case has been made as of July 6.
The legal professional defending him within the legal case stemming from the incident at his dwelling mentioned that Watson disputes the allegations and that he pleaded not responsible to the misdemeanor assault cost in opposition to him. The legal professional referred additional questions to a different lawyer who he mentioned represented Watson in office issues; that particular person acknowledged a request for remark despatched by e-mail however didn’t reply emailed questions or reply to voicemails.
Watson didn’t reply emails or cellphone messages in search of his response to the medical fee’s claims. Assembly supplies on the fee’s web site say Watson had a listening to scheduled in April.
KUOW and ProPublica started inspecting how and when Washington tells the general public about docs going through self-discipline following the case of Mark Mulholland, an japanese Washington OB-GYN accused final yr of conducting irregular pelvic exams and making inappropriate remarks.
He initially saved seeing sufferers, and no less than one has accused Mulholland in courtroom of abuse and negligence that she says occurred throughout the time between when the fee filed formal costs and when it introduced them. The girl alleges Mulholland “shoved his fingers into her rectum” and “mentioned to her with confidence that she had a nice-looking and tight vagina.”
Greater than 80 lawsuits associated to Mulholland’s alleged misconduct have been filed in opposition to the physician himself, his former employer Kadlec or its affiliate, the Windfall hospital chain.
(Mulholland has not responded to requests for remark, however the physician or his legal professional informed the fee beforehand that he strives to be light and respectful with cervical exams and denied conducting them in ways in which sufferers described. Within the civil litigation, which stays ongoing, the physician, Windfall and Kadlec all deny wrongdoing. Within the state disciplinary case, which stays open, Mulholland signed an interim order agreeing to restrictions on his license.)
As with many bulletins of costs in opposition to docs whose licenses remained unrestricted, the fee didn’t first publish a discover about Mulholland on the press launch part of its web site, however somewhat in a subscribers-only e-mail that mentioned nothing about what he was accused of. It got here six weeks after costs had been filed.
The record is meant to exit quarterly, a schedule that ensures many costs keep off the radar for months — and even longer when the board fails to maintain to its publication schedule. No less than 269 days handed just lately with out subscribers receiving an e-mail saying costs being filed in opposition to a physician and with out the fee saying costs in an internet press launch.
Some instances nonetheless haven’t been publicized.
Offered by KUOW and ProPublica with questions on the way it notifies the general public, the fee issued a written assertion saying it plans to change its practices to make allegations in opposition to docs extra seen.
Though the fee believes its present practices meet the regulation’s notification requirement, the assertion mentioned, the company “is at all times searching for methods to develop.”
“Expertise and public accessibility requirements proceed to evolve because the statute was written,” the assertion mentioned. The medical fee “acknowledges the worth in refining our processes and establishing new finest practices to reinforce transparency.”
On Could 29, the identical day the fee despatched its assertion, it despatched 4 e-mail notices saying preliminary or up to date allegations in opposition to licensees who weren’t instantly suspended — the primary such emails subscribers acquired since June 2025.
Washington state Rep. Gerry Pollet, a Seattle Democrat and outspoken advocate for disclosure and accountability, mentioned the medical fee was “completely not complying with the regulation.”
“The Legislature clearly mentioned, ‘You must inform the general public rapidly, and you must do this via a information launch,’” Pollet mentioned. “That’s one of many mechanisms. And the implication of a information launch is it’s a must to put it out whereas it’s nonetheless information. And ready months to place one thing on a restricted listserv doesn’t meet the spirit, a lot much less the letter, of the regulation.”
Pollet mentioned he plans to ask different legislators to hitch him in contacting the medical fee and asking for extra immediate and public notifications.
And if that doesn’t work, he mentioned, “ What we’d want is route within the funds to demand that they comply with the regulation.”
The Letter of the Legislation
The Washington Medical Fee has a nicely established course of for trying into the roughly 2,000 allegations of supplier misconduct it receives annually.
If an investigation finds proof that a physician violated the regulation, the medical fee points an announcement of costs. The physician has a proper to contest these earlier than a well being regulation choose or the fee points a ultimate order spelling out any disciplinary motion or dropping the case. Months can go by within the interim.
Washington regulation directs the medical fee to report each statements of costs and ultimate orders to events: the particular person whose grievance triggered an investigation, sure skilled organizations and the general public.
Particularly, the regulation says public notification “shall embrace press releases to acceptable native information media and the most important information wire providers.”
Two authorized consultants mentioned the provision of the state’s e-mail record notifying subscribers of “authorized actions,” which requires journalists and others to choose in, conceivably meets the regulation’s necessities. However Seth Rosenberg, an administrative and employment regulation legal professional, mentioned by e-mail that the truth that it provides solely names, dates and areas — not an outline of the costs docs face — arguably means “it’s bereft of significant element.”
Whether or not or not the emails convey sufficient info, KUOW and ProPublica’s evaluation discovered that they usually should not issued for a very long time.
The evaluation centered on costs in opposition to docs whose licenses remained untouched whereas they awaited a disciplinary determination. It turned up 13 emails or press releases from Could 2024 via July 6 that introduced costs whereas the case was nonetheless open, 5 of which weren’t despatched for greater than two months after costs had been introduced.
In one other 12 instances, the fee didn’t ship out public notifications till after it resolved costs in opposition to the physician, usually months after the doctor was placed on discover. Three of those instances had been shared by the use of the company’s quarterly e-newsletter, which doesn’t essentially go to subscribers on the authorized actions record.
4 docs accused final yr or in January nonetheless have but to seem in an e-mail, press launch or e-newsletter noting their costs as of July 6.
All informed, the fee has gone 100, 200 and even 300 days — within the case of Watson, the Richland physician accused of sexual misconduct with coworkers — with out both publicizing costs or taking away a physician’s license.
It’s unclear how most of the physicians recognized in KUOW and ProPublica’s evaluation continued working towards whereas ready for his or her instances to be resolved, however that they had the authorized capacity to take action.
The fee didn’t reply when requested to confirm that it had did not publicize instances in opposition to docs for whom no e-mail bulletins could possibly be discovered from early within the disciplinary course of. Govt Director Kyle Karinen mentioned the fee has persistently hooked up costs to docs’ entries in an internet database and listed charged docs in fee assembly supplies on-line.
The Washington Division of Well being, a associated company that handles sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to docs when the investigations don’t require medical experience, acknowledged that it did not publish any bulletins on 30 enforcement actions since 2016 however mentioned it has just lately mounted the issue.
The medical fee’s delayed or or nonexistent notifications embody a spread of alleged physician misconduct.
Kareematulai Arogundade was accused in August of failing to endure a psychological examination that the fee required. The doctor, who didn’t reply when contacted by KUOW and ProPublica by e-mail and cellphone, first appeared greater than 120 days later within the fee’s winter e-newsletter after his license was indefinitely suspended.
Sophie Gomez was accused in October of failing to answer a request for details about a grievance filed with the board, and her license was indefinitely suspended in February, after which the fee issued a press launch. (Gomez declined to remark when contacted by KUOW and ProPublica.)
The fee did announce costs previous to resolving the case in opposition to Jonathan Wynn Hemmert, who oversaw medical operations at three Washington clinics that used a tool referred to as Cryoskin, a temperature-controlled wand that producers say can take away undesirable fats cells when it’s rubbed in opposition to a affected person’s pores and skin.
The state company mentioned clinic staffers had purchasers signal a private harm waiver, which the fee mentioned was unenforceable, in opposition to public coverage and misleading and dishonest. The fee mentioned he additionally failed to make sure the machine was authorized by the Meals and Drug Administration and did not supervise employees utilizing the machine on sufferers.
Hemmert signed a settlement agreeing to handle the issues, however the fee in November filed formal allegations that he had breached it. (Hemmert didn’t reply when requested to touch upon the allegations, which haven’t but been adjudicated.)
A press launch was posted to the fee’s web site in March, 112 days after he was charged with breaching the settlement. Two months after that, a listserv discover went out.
“A Proper to Know”
The 1984 Washington state regulation that requires public notification was handed as a part of the Uniform Disciplinary Act, a set of pointers for state medical boards and commissions that license suppliers and examine complaints.
Among the many sponsors was then-state legislator Mike Kreidler, a Democrat and optometrist who served 16 years within the Legislature and 24 as insurance coverage commissioner.
Kreidler mentioned he doesn’t recall the main points of how the 1984 regulation got here collectively. However trying again at it, Kreidler, now 82, mentioned he believes the general public notification requirement fulfilled an essential perform. He mentioned to get to the purpose the place the fee completes an investigation and information costs means a grievance has sufficient proof behind it to proceed towards disciplinary motion.
“They’re not going to be frivolous in any style, and subsequently the general public actually does have a proper to know,” he mentioned.
Offered with KUOW and ProPublica’s findings, individuals who help insurance policies favoring disclosure to sufferers mentioned the fee’s interpretation of the 1984 notification regulation falls brief.
Patricia Kelmar, senior director of healthcare campaigns at PIRG, a nonprofit advocacy group for customers, mentioned the fee needs to be expansive in discharging its obligation to inform the general public because the regulation requires, contacting not solely reporters but in addition a physician’s present and former sufferers.
“ We shouldn’t be hoping that we stumble throughout the data that’s going to guard us from a physician who’s harmful,” Kelmar mentioned.
Lisa McGiffert, affected person security activist with the Affected person Security Motion Community, mentioned the fee’s frequent delay in notifying the general public doesn’t fulfill the spirit of Washington’s regulation, which in her interpretation necessitates a fast launch of data.
“ There’s nothing stopping Washington state from saying these need to be despatched out to the information media inside 4 or 5 working days,” McGiffert mentioned.
Native media shops have paid consideration within the occasional instances the place the medical fee has introduced an motion through the press launch part of its web site. A evaluation of stories releases about in-state docs accused of conduct unrelated to their psychological well being reveals that, most of the time, related media shops have printed tales afterward.
A information tip to a neighborhood journalist, not the fee’s e-mail record, prompted the primary media protection of the case in opposition to Mulholland final June — practically two months after the fee formally charged the gynecologist with misconduct involving three sufferers.
The girl who later accused Mulholland of performing an uncomfortable rectal examination and saying her vagina appeared good mentioned the actions occurred at an appointment on Could 1, 2025, or simply days after the fee filed formal allegations.
The girl informed KUOW and ProPublica that she was indignant that she heard no information concerning the fee’s present allegations earlier than she noticed Mulholland.
“I’d by no means heard something unhealthy about him,” she mentioned in an interview with KUOW and ProPublica.
Had she identified, she wouldn’t have gone, she mentioned.
