8 lawsuits filed against Providence and Kadlec over doctor’s alleged abuse

Six new lawsuits have been filed against Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, Washington over the alleged conduct of Dr. Mark Mulholland at the hospital’s Associated Physicians for Women clinic, bringing the number of cases to eight.

“It’s becoming clear that Dr. Mulholland was serially abusing his patients, and Kadlec knew about it for years,” said attorney Mallory Allen, a partner at Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, one of two firms with new lawsuits. The Seattle law firm initially filed two lawsuits against Kadlec and Tuesday filed five more, all of them in King County Superior Court.

“We’ve heard from patients and former staff that Kadlec was aware of Dr. Mulholland’s disgusting behavior as far back as 2005, but instead of upholding their legal and ethical obligations to take action to protect patients from sexual abuse, these medical institutions turned a blind eye and enabled it,” Allen said.

A Chicago attorney, who graduated from Kamiakin High in Kennewick, and now specializes in women’s rights and institutional abuse cases, filed the sixth new case.

The Washington Medical Commission has accused Mulholland of unprofessional conduct, but any reply to the statement of charges issued April 29 has not been made public.

Kadlec has said it is unable to comment on pending litigation and said that Mulholland, 58, is not currently practicing at its clinic.

Mulholland could not be reached about the allegations.

The Seattle firm is suing Kadlec; Providence Health & Services, with which Kadlec is affiliated; and Kadlec Clinic – Associated Physicians for Women, where Mulholland worked. The headquarters for Providence Health is in King County.

The cases claim sexual abuse of plaintiffs and detail an alleged pattern of women complaining about Mulholland to Kadlec or practice officials.

The lawsuits claim:

• In 2005, a former employee, who also was a patient, reported to the office manager sexually inappropriate comments made by Mulholland. The lawsuit says she was told “that is just Mulholland being Mulholland.”
• In 2017, a patient complained to a nurse at Kadlec that Mulholland had conducted an internal exam without gloves on and pushed her back down on the exam table when she started to get up. He later grabbed the inner part of her thigh and told her to relax, according to the lawsuits.
• In 2020, a mother reported to Kadlec, its clinic or Providence officials that Mulholland had repeatedly asked sexually inappropriate questions about her 16-year-old daughter’s sex life.
• Also in 2020, a patient reported that Mulholland refused to let her leave without having a pelvic exam. He only let her leave once she threatened to call 911, according to the lawsuits.
• In June 2023, a patient complained to a doctor at the Kadlec clinic that Mulholland had made sexual comments to her and that he examined her internally with so much force that it caused her to bleed for several days.

Patients in the five new lawsuits, who are not identified, made various claims about their own appointments with Mulholland, including that he made “sexually grotesque comments,” touched them inappropriately or performed internal exams in a sexual manner.

The seventh lawsuit was filed last week by Tamara Holder, of Tamara Holder Law in Chicago, who litigates cases that include doctor sexual abuse.

The lawsuit she filed, with Washington state representation by a Seattle attorney Elizabeth Hanley, is against Kadlec, Providence and also Mulholland.

The case claims that since as early as 2003, Kadlec and its employees received numerous complaints about Mulholland allegedly performing unexplained rectal exams, fat shaming patients and performing gloveless pelvic exams using enough force to wound patients and cause them to bleed.

One woman claimed he was drunk at the hospital, according to the lawsuit.

The patient who filed the case, who was not named, alleged that in 2022 he performed a gloveless breast exam she thought was unusually long, aggressively opened up her legs and used a metal speculum despite her request for a plastic one.

He told her something to the effect of, “You’re perfect down there,” touched her shoulder, winked at her and asked if she was single, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that not only were numerous complaints made to Kadlec about Mulholland, but that it received demands that they not be scheduled for appointments of C-sections.

Holder said she was devastated to learn that not only did Mulholland allegedly abuse female patients, but also that when they complained they were ignored.