One of the greatest challenges people in certain professions face, is when someone else doing the same work is convicted of a work-related crime. When a cop is charged with excessive use of force, it changes the way people interact with other officers, even if they had nothing to do with the incident. If a tax accountant is accused of embezzling money, all tax accountants will be looked at with suspicion in the light of that crime. And for health care professionals, it won’t be any different.

In the wake of the Nassar case, everything will be different!

After the Nassar trial, the number of women and girls who felt safe to speak out about the doctors and nurses who had assaulted them, grew exponentially. Suddenly victims were coming out of the woodwork all over the country, and Michigan seemed to have more than our fair share. In fact, there have been more than thirty health care professionals convicted of sexual assault or misconduct in the last year, and the number is only going to rise.

Sexual misconduct among health care professionals is a major concern!

According to reports from the state, 238 claims of sexual misconduct by health professionals were reported to the Michigan Department of Licensing & Regulatory Affairs (LARA) between 2011 and 2016. The list of the accused includes a wide variety of healthcare professionals, from doctors to massage therapists, accused of a wide variety of sexual crimes, from inappropriate touching to rape.

How will this impact Michigan’s other health care professionals?

As you can imagine, with the numbers this high, it’s going to have a huge impact on Michigan’s health care community. Parents will struggle to trust doctors. Children will learn to fear the people who are meant to keep them healthy. Families may end up avoiding trips to the doctors’ office, simply because they don’t know if what waits for them there is trustworthy health care, or a sexual predator in disguise. And while their concern is entirely valid, it could easily lead to false allegations in the future!

How can fear lead to false allegations against a doctor?

Genitals are part of our bodies, and therefore need to be kept healthy. That means check ups and tests, and occasional procedures, all of which should be done by medical professionals. But what happens when fear leads us to assume the worst about our doctors? What happens when a teen girl’s perfectly normal ‘pap and pelvic’ suddenly feels invasive because she’s assuming terrible things about her doctor’s hidden motivations? Is it possible that fear of being assaulted can lead a person to believe that they’re the victim of an assault? Yes it is, and false allegations happen more often than you realize!

Have you been falsely accused of sexually abusing a child?

False allegations of sexual abuse are a terrifying thought for any health professional! If you’ve been accused of abusing or sexually assaulting a child or a patient who’s a minor, whether or not you are guilty of the crime, contact us immediately at 800-576-6035. The skilled and experienced attorneys at the The Kronzek Firm have decades of experience handling child abuse and sexual assault cases. We can help you too.