Columbia University in New York released a report<\/a> detailing how a culture of silence at the institution had allowed OB-GYN Robert Hadden to abuse more than 1,000 patients over decades.\u00a0<\/p>\nStates like Ohio and Delaware have moved aggressively to make it easier to keep doctors accused of sexual misconduct away from patients.<\/p>\n
In Washington, the medical commission wasn\u2019t the only organization that allowed Mulholland to keep practicing.<\/p>\n
A Kadlec risk management employee, through an attorney, acknowledged to the commission that the clinic had received patient complaints against the doctor and said they were investigated. (The letter did not describe the complaints but said they included \u201ccommunication with patients regarding obesity.\u201d) Mulholland\u2019s privileges were never restricted or terminated, the statement said.<\/p>\n
When local news stories covered the commission\u2019s charges against Mulholland in June, it unleashed a deluge of 18 new complaints in the following three months.<\/p>\n
In September, the commission placed restrictions on his license that prevented him from seeing female patients. Mulholland agreed pending a hearing on his case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just let him keep practicing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A former patient of Dr. Mark Mulholland\u2019s<\/p>\n
Yanling Yu, a former Washington medical commissioner and a patient advocate with Washington Advocates for Patient Safety, wouldn\u2019t comment on the Mulholland case directly. But she said it\u2019s ethically wrong to allow a doctor facing serious allegations of sexual misconduct to continue seeing any patients while an investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an ideal regulatory system, if there has been enough or strong evidence to support the allegation, the doctor\u2019s practice should be temporarily suspended or at least summarily restricted to protect patients\u2019 safety,\u201d she wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
Kyle Karinen, executive director of the Washington Medical Commission, said the agency wasn\u2019t slow to act and that it must operate under the system lawmakers created.<\/p>\n
\u201cI acknowledge that sometimes it takes longer than people would like, but we take that process really seriously,\u201d Karinen said. \u201cWhen we file a case and go to a hearing, we want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to be heard on a particular topic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman who saw Mulholland in February 2025 filed a lawsuit against the clinic and a board complaint against the doctor, both in August. She said she was indignant after learning about the earlier complaints.<\/p>\n
She said the commission should have taken those women more seriously. \u201cThey just let him keep practicing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
2022: The First Complaint\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first sexual misconduct allegation against Mulholland landed in the commission\u2019s email inbox in January 2022. The author was a first-time mother who, at 41 weeks pregnant, went to have labor induced at the Kadlec Regional Medical Center.<\/p>\n
The woman said she had hoped a female doctor would deliver the baby. But Mulholland was the on-call doctor assigned the day she arrived. When she saw that the doctor was a man, she asked if the female nurse who was there could perform her predelivery cervical check instead, according to her complaint.<\/p>\n
Mulholland insisted, she said. (He later told a commission investigator that because the woman was having labor induced, he had to personally know her cervical dilation and consistency, whether the fetus was in breech position or if her amniotic sac was intact. He also said because she was experiencing high blood pressure, her delivery couldn\u2019t wait to be rescheduled with a female doctor.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have a choice but to trust who was supposed to be trustworthy,\u201d the woman said in an interview with KUOW and ProPublica.<\/p>\n
In her complaint, she said Mulholland was inappropriate. When the nurse asked her if she still had her underwear on, Mulholland joked that he still had his on too, she wrote.<\/p>\n
During the cervical check, with his fingers inside the expectant mother, he pressed in different directions, according to her complaint. The woman said Mulholland told her he doesn\u2019t perform exams this way because it hurts. Then he showed her what he described as the correct way, she said in the complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cervical check was the longest and most painful one I have ever had,\u201d she said in the complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have a choice but to trust who was supposed to be trustworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
A former patient of Mulholland\u2019s<\/p>\n
Three OB-GYNs, when presented by KUOW and ProPublica with the woman\u2019s description of the pelvic exam, said the maneuver sounded unnecessarily painful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds strange,\u201d said Alson Burke, an associate professor at the University of Washington who teaches medical students how to perform pelvic exams. \u201cSaying \u2018I don\u2019t do something because it hurts\u2019 and then doing it doesn\u2019t make sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commission records show that Mulholland said the allegation that his cervical exam was longer than what\u2019s typical was absurd.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do try to be as careful, quick, gentle, and efficient as I can be when doing a pelvic exam whether it is for gynecology or obstetrics,\u201d he wrote in an email to a commission clinical health care investigator. \u201cWith regards to being the most painful one she ever had, for that I am surprised as well as sorry. I pride myself on trying to be as gentle as absolutely possible. I get frequent compliments on how much less uncomfortable my exams are than most other providers, male or female.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nurse present during the woman\u2019s exam told the commission it seemed \u201cno longer or any more painful than these types of exams are typically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up until that day, the patient\u2019s pregnancy had been a joyous experience, she said in an interview with KUOW and ProPublica. She was excited to meet her daughter and picked out the outfit she\u2019d arrive home in.<\/p>\n
The nurse was ultimately able to line up a midwife to assist with the woman\u2019s delivery in place of Mulholland.<\/p>\n
But her cervical exam with Mulholland made the birth experience \u201cworse than we could have ever imagined,\u201d the woman, now 27, said in an interview with KUOW and ProPublica. It brought about depression and anxiety, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter\u2019s an only child, and I\u2019m not sure if she ever will get a sibling because of how traumatic that was,\u201d she told the news organizations.<\/p>\n
By the end of July 2022, the new mother\u2019s case was closed without any disciplinary action.<\/p>\n
At the time, it was an isolated complaint in the record of a doctor who, records show, had not faced accusations of sexual misconduct with the medical commission before.<\/p>\n
Then, a little over a year later, came another complaint, this time filed by a woman who had worked with Mulholland for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n
October 2023: A Co-worker and Patient Speaks Out<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-Gordon-wash-ob-gyn-gloves.jpg\")
Illustration by Shoshana Gordon\/ProPublica<\/p>\n
According to an investigator\u2019s report, the woman said she had worked at Kadlec Regional Medical Center for nine years and her interactions as Mulholland\u2019s colleague had always been professional.<\/p>\n
The complaint she filed in October 2023 concerned events she said took place when she was Mulholland\u2019s patient. She\u2019d had her fallopian tubes and the tissue lining her uterus removed and developed pain that was only present when she was menstruating.<\/p>\n
On the day of her appointment, her complaint said, she\u2019d explained all this to Mulholland when he began a line of questioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes it hurt you to have intercourse?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n
Then, the woman wrote in her complaint to the medical commission, Mulholland stood close to her and in a lower tone asked. \u201cNot even when he\u2019s deep inside you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d she said she asserted.<\/p>\n
Mulholland told the woman he needed to do a pelvic exam, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
While examining her, the woman wrote, Mulholland used one hand to push down on the top of her abdomen and with the other hand began repeatedly and \u201cpowerfully\u201d thrusting his fingers into her vagina.<\/p>\n
Burke, the associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington, said repeated \u201cthrusting\u201d is neither a technique she uses nor something she has ever observed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason I wouldn\u2019t recommend it is because it could be triggering and really uncomfortable for someone,\u201d Burke said. \u201cIs that actually helping you gather the information? And is the patient feeling safe in the way that you are examining them?\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that no part of the pelvic exam should be performed in such a way that its intent could be perceived as sexual.<\/p>\n
According to the former colleague\u2019s complaint, each time Mulholland shoved his fingers inside, he leaned in close and asked, \u201cIs this the same as the pain you felt?\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman wrote that Mulholland was \u201ceffectively holding her in place\u201d on the exam table and she was unable to move to escape the pain. A medical assistant was nearby, she said.<\/p>\n
After the pelvic exam, she said, the assistant left. Mulholland told the woman that she had a \u201cgreat looking vagina,\u201d she wrote, and that he usually had to use three fingers, but with her, he could only use two. Before leaving, the woman said in her complaint, the doctor asked her if she worked out and said he could tell she did.<\/p>\n
Through an attorney, Mulholland later told the commission that he conducts all of his exams \u201cas respectfully as possible\u201d and that he is \u201cvery cognizant of his patient\u2019s reactions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The doctor was responding to a commission investigator\u2019s December 2023 request for his version of what happened during the woman\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n
That same month, a complaint from a third woman arrived.<\/p>\n
December 2023: Another Exam Complaint<\/p>\n
It was three weeks before the new year when the woman went to the medical commission for help.<\/p>\n
The patient, whose primary language is Spanish, had an interpreter join her in-person appointment virtually. A physician\u2019s assistant had referred the woman to Mulholland to discuss a possible hysterectomy to relieve pain.<\/p>\n
The woman later told a commission investigator that during her appointment, Mulholland entered the exam room and introduced himself. Then he lifted the paper sheet that covered her naked lower half, looked at her genital area, then looked back at her, which made her uncomfortable. Without asking her to reposition herself, he grabbed her by the butt to move her down the exam table, she said.<\/p>\n
Mulholland\u2019s pelvic exam was aggressive, she said in her written complaint to the commission. The investigator who interviewed her wrote that the woman said he\u2019d moved his fingers in and out and that she felt a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI yelled at some point,\u201d she wrote in her complaint.<\/p>\n
A nurse was present but seemed fixated on the computer screen, the woman said.<\/p>\n
Before the appointment ended, Mulholland said he was \u201ceager to see\u201d the woman\u2019s vagina again, laughed and then said he was looking forward to reuniting with her womb, the investigator quoted the woman as saying. When the Spanish-language interpreter on the computer screen went quiet and asked Mulholland to repeat what he said, the woman wrote in her complaint, the doctor told the interpreter there was no need to relay that last message.<\/p>\n
The woman was left in pain for 12 days after her appointment with Mulholland, she told the investigator, adding that she didn\u2019t want others to go through what she had.<\/p>\n
In response to this complaint, Mulholland\u2019s attorney wrote to the commission, \u201cat no time has he ever simply moved his fingers in and out several times with this patient or any other.\u201d<\/p>\n
(A separate report the woman filed with the Richland Police Department, which the department classified as a potential sex offense with \u201cforcible fondling,\u201d was closed in 14 days. The responding officer wrote that he hadn\u2019t found facts to indicate a crime was committed \u201con the basis that the alleged incident occurred during a medical examination.\u201d)<\/p>\n
The state medical commission pressed ahead with its investigations into the two 2023 complaints, both of which asserted Mulholland had moved his fingers in and out during a pelvic exam.<\/p>\n
The investigator assigned to both cases turned to Mulholland\u2019s current and former colleagues. Two said that while some patients complained about the way Mulholland communicated with them about weight issues, they personally did not have concerns. Three other current or former colleagues, meanwhile, described problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cervical check was the longest and most painful one I have ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n
A former patient of Mulholland\u2019s<\/p>\n
Alexis Tuck, an OB-GYN who worked at Kadlec from 2017 to 2022, said in a statement to the commission that she noticed a pattern of Mulholland\u2019s patients switching providers because they wanted anyone \u201cexcept Dr. Mulholland,\u201d and sometimes requested her.<\/p>\n
She said that when she asked these patients about the reason behind their switch they replied:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe grabbed my belly fat and shook it in front of my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe called me fat and made fun of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me my vagina is tight during a pelvic exam.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me I have a pretty vagina during a pap smear.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made a comment about my vagina being tight and I talked to my mom about him. Apparently she had a similar weird experience with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuck told the commission that more than once, patients cried in her office while sharing their stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese accounts were consistent in their tone and content, painting a troubling picture of a physician whose behavior repeatedly crossed the line of professional and ethical conduct,\u201d she wrote to the commission.<\/p>\n
Tuck told the commission that the woman who filed the October 2023 complaint was among those who described their experiences to her. Tuck said the woman was \u201cvisibly shaken and emotional\u201d when she detailed what happened, which, based on Tuck\u2019s retelling, was generally consistent with the woman\u2019s complaint to the medical commission.<\/p>\n
Another colleague told the commission that Mulholland once told her as a patient was leaving the office, \u201cI bet you were skinny like her when you were pregnant,\u201d and that another time he said he thought he\u2019d seen her driving a BMW and that she looked \u201chot.\u201d Another said she found Mulholland\u2019s comments about overweight women disrespectful.<\/p>\n
The claims against Mulholland were piling up.<\/p>\n
In February and March 2024, Britta Fischer, commission investigator, submitted the 2023 cases for review.<\/p>\n
What to do next was soon in the hands of commissioners.<\/p>\n
March-September 2024: A Decision Awaits\u00a0<\/p>\n
The medical commission takes its guidance on how to handle allegations against a doctor from Washington statutes, which prohibit physicians from engaging in a range of behavior defined as sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n
The law bans statements about a patient\u2019s \u201cbody, appearance, sexual history, or sexual orientation\u201d except for legitimate purposes of care. The law also bars behavior, gestures or expressions that could \u201creasonably be interpreted as seductive or sexual.\u201d<\/p>\n
A doctor can\u2019t remove a patient\u2019s gown or draping unless it\u2019s with a patient\u2019s consent, during emergency care or in a custodial setting.<\/p>\n
A doctor can\u2019t touch a person\u2019s breasts, genitals, anus or other \u201csexualized body part\u201d unless it\u2019s \u201cconsistent with accepted community standards of practice for examination, diagnosis and treatment and within the health care practitioner\u2019s scope of practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Determining whether or not behavior is appropriate can be particularly difficult when it comes to OB-GYNs, said Emily Anderson, professor at Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Healthcare Leadership and Loyola University Chicago\u2019s Stritch School of Medicine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have access to our naked bodies as women, to our vaginas, to our breasts,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cThey are allowed to do things that we don\u2019t give other people permission to do, and that\u2019s part of their job.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are standards for physical exams. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists\u2019 Committee on Ethics wrote that exams should be explained appropriately, done only with patient consent and \u201cperformed with the minimum amount of physical contact required to obtain data for diagnosis and treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
State medical boards can also look to patterns of behavior.<\/p>\n
Two of the three complaints against Mulholland from 2022 through 2023 mentioned movement in and out during pelvic exams, while all three described painful pelvic exams and comments the women considered inappropriate. Three colleagues also had described hearing about or witnessing him making disrespectful or inappropriate remarks, including one who said they were directed at her.<\/p>\n
OB-GYNs \u201chave access to our naked bodies as women.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily Anderson, professor at Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Healthcare Leadership and Loyola University Chicago\u2019s Stritch School of Medicine<\/p>\n
Anderson, in a journal article, wrote that it\u2019s common to find repeated, lesser forms of misconduct in the backgrounds of doctors who act egregiously.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, sexual violations are nearly always preceded by boundary violations such as inappropriate comments or touching,\u201d the article said.<\/p>\n
Anderson and her colleagues recommended state regulators consider restricting a doctor\u2019s license for multiple smaller offenses.<\/p>\n
Stephanie Loucka, executive director of Ohio\u2019s medical board, said that if patterns of misconduct exist, the process will find them \u2014 even when an OB-GYN\u2019s actions occur under the guise of legitimate care. Ohio began its overhaul of sexual misconduct investigations seven years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a complaint gets made, we\u2019re going to work the fact pattern from the assumption that there might be something there, and we\u2019re going to gather the evidence and see where the evidence takes us,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it typically takes us clearly one way or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a threat of immediate harm in cases of sexual misconduct, Loucka said, Ohio moves \u201cwith a sense of urgency\u201d to file an emergency suspension. She estimated it has taken the Ohio board from six weeks to nine months to do so.<\/p>\n
In Washington, the medical commission reviewed the investigator\u2019s reports on\u00a0 the 2023 cases and decided on what it considered an appropriate resolution.<\/p>\n
It proposed an \u201cinformal way of settling\u201d allegations against Mulholland.<\/p>\n
A heavily redacted May 31, 2024, letter sent to Mulholland\u2019s attorney by the commission does not reveal the terms of the settlement. But the letter said the settlement would not require an admission of \u201cany unprofessional conduct or wrongdoing.\u201d Although settlements appear in the commission\u2019s newsletter with brief summaries, the letter told Mulholland that a settlement would avoid a hearing, typically a public process.<\/p>\n
All Mulholland had to do was sign.<\/p>\n
Months passed. Mulholland\u2019s attorney asked for the information gathered about his client, and the commission sent it. A June 2024 deadline for him to accept the agreement passed, as did a subsequent one in August. Nothing in documents released by the commission indicates he signed \u2014 or that the commission took any disciplinary action.<\/p>\n
Mulholland kept seeing patients.<\/p>\n
2018-2023: What the Hospital Knew<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-Gordon-wash-ob-gyn-back-head.jpg\")
Illustration by Shoshana Gordon\/ProPublica<\/p>\n
Long before the commission\u2019s investigator filed her report with her superiors, Mulholland\u2019s employer had also heard repeated concerns, according to Kadlec Clinic records acquired by attorneys in a lawsuit against Providence and the clinic. The attorneys submitted the documents as an exhibit in court.<\/p>\n
(In court filings, Providence and Kadlec denied that they were negligent or that they knew or should have known about the abuse the plaintiffs alleged.)<\/p>\n
Kadlec\u2019s records in the lawsuit show that the clinic conducted a 2018 human resources investigation into allegations that Mulholland had mocked a co-worker\u2019s sexuality and religion, concluding that it was \u201cmore likely than not\u201d the allegations were true. Afterward, the records say, Mulholland\u2019s employer provided him \u201ccoaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kadlec\u2019s records also say that the clinic conducted a 2019 workplace investigation into allegations that Mulholland made sex jokes and condescending remarks, displayed discrimination toward women, and challenged a co-worker who complained about him.<\/p>\n
A labor nurse told a Providence investigator that year that Mulholland had pinched a patient\u2019s labia while she was in labor and asked if she was hurting. A colleague told the nurse that Mulholland had done the same to another patient who was giving birth, according to the labor nurse\u2019s account as written down by the investigator.<\/p>\n
A different colleague reported to a Kadlec workplace investigator that a patient had disclosed that Mulholland told her to \u201cmasturbate more often,\u201d Kadlec records say.<\/p>\n
Separately, Tuck, the OB-GYN who worked alongside Mulholland, told a Kadlec investigator that a patient disclosed she felt Mulholland had assaulted her but that the woman didn\u2019t report it because she felt no one would believe her.<\/p>\n
Following the 2019 workplace investigation, Kadlec\u2019s records say, Mulholland\u2019s employer concluded in 2020 that he \u201cengaged in multiple instances of inappropriate behavior\u201d that violated the medical center\u2019s expectations. He was placed on a \u201cbehavior agreement\u201d and required to take harassment prevention training.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Kadlec records show, more emails were sent to clinic leadership alleging that Mulholland was demeaning to patients and co-workers. They described a \u201ctoxic work environment\u201d and said management failed to address employees\u2019 concerns about the doctor.<\/p>\n
Tuck departed the clinic sometime that same year. She later told the medical commission she left because management failed to take action against him.<\/p>\n
Tuck raised concerns about Mulholland within an email to Chief Medical Officer Rich Meadows in July 2022, writing that patients \u201cfelt they had been insulted\/assaulted\u201d by Mulholland.<\/p>\n
Kadlec\u2019s records in the lawsuit show that Tuck had also told a Kadlec workplace investigator in 2019 that the clinic manager, Lisa Mallory, protected Mulholland. In the statement she later gave the state medical commission, Tuck said when she brought concerns about Mulholland to Mallory, she responded, \u201cHe\u2019s always been like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mallory, in response to a request for comment from KUOW and ProPublica, said this statement was taken out of context. She declined to say more. Meadows, through a Providence spokesperson, declined to comment.<\/p>\n
In June 2023, clinic records in the lawsuit say, Kadlec took a phone call from a patient who said Mulholland shoved his two fingers inside of her so hard during a pelvic exam that she felt his knuckles slam up against her vagina and anus.<\/p>\n
\u201cRough, jabbing and pushing up, like he was trying to arouse me or something,\u201d according to Kadlec\u2019s narrative describing the woman\u2019s complaint.<\/p>\n
She told Kadlec that she had alerted Mulholland before the exam that her vagina was prone to tearing and that she experienced vaginal pain with as little as a sneeze or a cough.<\/p>\n
Kadlec\u2019s summary of the woman\u2019s account said that after a rectal exam, Mulholland told the patient: \u201cWell, you took that surprisingly well. It\u2019s a good thing my fingers are small.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman said her body where Mulholland touched her was inflamed for two and a half days.<\/p>\n
When the commission eventually contacted Mallory as part of the state\u2019s own investigation, the clinic manager acknowledged there had been complaints within Kadlec. She did not seem to give them much credence.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Mulholland has received his fair share of complaints over the years as have all the other providers here\u201d at the Kadlec clinic, she wrote in a statement to the state board. \u201cFrom what I have observed, he cares deeply for his patients and has spent his career trying to educate women on their health. They have not always appreciated how he has done that.\u201d<\/p>\n
September 2024: State\u2019s Investigation Resumes<\/p>\n
By September 2024, more than two years had elapsed since the state received its first complaint about a pelvic exam performed by Mulholland. Six months had passed since an investigator forwarded her report on two other pelvic exam complaints. That month, the commission learned of a new one.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring examination, he said my vagina was very dry and that my husband wasn\u2019t doing his job,\u201d the woman wrote in her complaint.<\/p>\n
The woman also described her interaction with Mulholland to a commission investigator. At the appointment, the woman had told a medical assistant that she was concerned about a fishy smell, she said. Upon entering the exam room, she told the investigator, Mulholland said loudly, \u201cHey, I heard you had a vagina that smells like fish.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he conducted his physical examination, the woman told the investigator, Mulholland penetrated her with his fingers and was \u201cgoing in and out\u201d and touching her clitoris.<\/p>\n
The patient said she asked Mulholland to stop more than once. She was uncomfortable and what Mulholland was doing reminded her of her past sexual abuse, she wrote in her complaint. She said he eventually stopped.<\/p>\n
Next, according to an investigator\u2019s memo outlining the patient\u2019s interview, Mulholland asked her if she masturbated and if she used sex toys or her fingers to do so. When the patient said she did not, Mulholland encouraged her to purchase some toys and to use them alone, she said. Then, according to the memo describing the woman\u2019s account, Mulholland rubbed her shoulder and said, \u201cYou\u2019re too young not to have good sex.\u201d<\/p>\n
A mandatory reporter filed a complaint supplementing the woman\u2019s filing at around the same time.<\/p>\n
By that time, the woman\u2019s account brought to four the number of women asserting sexual misconduct by Mulholland since 2022. Counting a woman who reported rude behavior in a submission that was not marked as alleging sexual misconduct and that the commission closed, Mulholland had been named in six complaints.<\/p>\n
Only 11 licensed physicians and physician assistants were the subject of six or more complaints in that time frame, the commission\u2019s spokesperson said. As of last year, 41,256 people held this type of license in Washington.<\/p>\n
A week after the mandatory reporter contacted the commission, Kelly Elder, a Washington Medical Commission staff attorney, sent the two pending 2023 cases back to Freda Pace, the commission\u2019s director of investigations.<\/p>\n
Elder asked Pace to have investigators try and reach people whose statements hadn\u2019t been collected before.<\/p>\n
Medical commission records show that investigator Britta Fischer also began looking into the new allegation.<\/p>\n
Fischer\u2019s inquiries produced statements from co-workers attesting to Mulholland\u2019s good character and stating that they were unaware of any concerns raised by patients.<\/p>\n
Mulholland himself, in a statement his attorney gave to the commission, said he didn\u2019t have a \u201cfirm recollection\u201d of the appointment the patient described in her complaint. He said he would never tell a patient anything to the effect that her husband was not doing his job. He said he addresses masturbation with patients who complain of sexual dryness or pain during sex, and he denied stroking the patient\u2019s shoulder in a \u201csuggestive way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Due to \u201cunjustified allegations,\u201d the statement said, Mulholland had changed the way he worked with patients. The statement said these changes included always trying to have a chaperone present instead of just during physical exams. He also started creating more physical distance from the patient during counseling and exploring \u201ctangential issues, such as sexual health and wellbeing\u201d only when a patient brought them up.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Mulholland is truly sorry if his previous long-standing practice patterns have caused any patient any type of duress or anguish because of misinterpretation of what Dr. Mulholland was attempting to accomplish \u2014 excellent patient care,\u201d the statement sent to the commission said.<\/p>\n
Still, the commission also had the prior, adverse statements from colleagues and patients. In April 2025, the agency formally accused Mulholland of abuse and unprofessional conduct. (The allegations would later be amended to include sexual misconduct.)<\/p>\n
Neither the medical commission nor the Washington State Department of Health, which oversees it, posted a news release on their websites. Members of the general public could have learned of the charges \u2014 if they knew to search for Mulholland\u2019s name on the Health Department\u2019s \u201cprovider credential search\u201d page. Stephanie Mason, spokesperson for the commission, said the statement of charges would also go out to anyone who subscribed to quarterly email updates from the commission.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until a June Tri-City Herald story<\/a> that the commission\u2019s claims seemed to become widely known.<\/p>\nThe outpouring of new patient complaints that followed echoed what the commission had already heard.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody was listening to me, and I did everything that I should have done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torryn Kerley, a former patient who sued Mulholland. Kerley asked to be identified by name for this article.<\/p>\n
Their accounts included allegations that Mulholland had peeked at their pubic hair under the sheet, physically pulled them down the exam table, used sexual language and performed extremely painful vaginal exams.<\/p>\n
Two of the women who have filed lawsuits against Mulholland or his employers told KUOW and ProPublica they attended appointments with him after the commission had received multiple complaints and before he agreed to restrictions on his license.<\/p>\n
One said she was angry she hadn\u2019t heard about allegations against Mulholland sooner. After a hysterectomy, she was directed to see him every four months for a year for pap smears.<\/p>\n
She saw Mulholland for the last time on May 1, 2025 \u2014 two days after the commission filed its allegations against him. She learned about the commission\u2019s case after the media coverage began.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I expected the lady at the counter when you\u2019re checking in to warn you and say, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re gonna see Mulholland, and he\u2019s had complaints,\u2019\u201d she said in an interview with KUOW and ProPublica. \u201cI don\u2019t see a company or whatever ever doing that, but it would have been nice to know. I would have picked a different doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another woman who sued, Torryn Kerley, said she was angry at Kadlec to learn of all the women coming forward in lawsuits after she had already complained to the clinic about Mulholland.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody was listening to me, and I did everything that I should have done,\u201d said Kerley, who asked to be identified by name for this article. \u201cI reported it. I told people about it. I told doctors in the office about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karinen, the medical commission director, said it\u2019s very unusual for the commission to file a statement of charges and then get dozens of complaints in the same vein against that same doctor, as happened with Mulholland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s unheard of,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mason, the commission spokesperson, cast the arrival of the new complaints as a positive outcome of the action that commissioners took against Mulholland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what opened the door to these women coming forward, because at that point, really not very many people had said anything at all, by comparison,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n
No date has been set yet for a hearing in which Mulholland can challenge the commission\u2019s allegations against him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reporting Highlights Complaints Roll In: Four female patients complained to Washington\u2019s medical commission about Dr. Mark Mulholland from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-565192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}