Women in medicine denied safe reporting systems for harassment

For 2 years, Kellie Lease Stecher, MD, had advocated for safe reporting structures at her institution so that incidents of harassment could be submitted anonymously and evaluated objectively.

When her requests were denied, Stecher, an OB/GYN in Minnesota, asked professional medical organizations to step in and enforce mandatory safe reporting structures at academic medical centers, which she described as “the bare minimum” for protecting employees against harassment.

“The feedback that I have gotten is that they can’t enforce these things,” she said during the virtual Ending Physician Burnout Global Summit. “They could offer another task force, or I could write another policy statement. But for those of us who have been working on these issues for years, that’s not adequate.

“No matter what we have done, we have not been able to push this agenda forward just to simply have safe reporting structures for people,” she added.

Previous data have shown that sexual harassment is common among physicians, but many do not report it. Lisa Kaye Cannada, MD, an orthopedic trauma surgeon, attributed this to flaws within the reporting systems, which she said are “never safe or confidential,” and victims, particularly women, fear retaliation.

When women do come forward, the male accusers are often given “immediate credibility,” while the victims are labeled as “disruptive,” according to Stecher.

“Very sadly, you are often made to look like the crazy, hallucinating, schizophrenic, disruptive person,” she said. “So, why don’t we report it? Because there are no ramifications for these actions.”

In light of these issues, Stecher encouraged women to “save the receipts.”

“Make sure to save emails and text messages. Screenshot what you can,” she said. “If someone sends you an inappropriate work email, send it to your personal email.”

She urged the health care community to support efforts promoting a safe work environment. The high prevalence of harassment and limited support systems, in addition to microaggressions that women in medicine face, contribute to burnout and could help explain why about 40% of women reduce their workload to part time or leave medicine within 6 years of residency, according to Stecher.

“We have a lot of work to do. No one is going to stop us at this point,” she said. “We are at that fork in the road where we can decide to roll over and be complacent with what the normal is for us or we can actually move forward together as a team and get this fixed. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if we work together, we can fix this. That is why this grassroots movement is so important.”