A Case of a Hospital’s Weak Investigation
The Hospital’s Investigation
On September 12, 2023, Tiffany asked Hillsboro Police Department detective Megan Townsend if she planned to contact any staff members at the hospital to interview them, and Detective Townsend said she didn’t have a plan to do so. Tiffany was concerned that members of her surgical team would forget what happened on the day of her assault. For this reason, Tiffany contacted staff members of her surgical team on social media on September 17, 2023, and asked them to reach out to Detective Townsend if they had tips.
Although OHSU Hillsboro Medical Center learned of Tiffany’s sexual assault allegation shortly after her assault occurred, according to a police report, the hospital did not interview staff to investigate Tiffany’s alleged sexual assault until Tiffany informed hospital staff members about her allegation by contacting them on social media. The CEO Lori James-Nielsen told Detective Townsend that the detective could not be present during the staff interviews.
The Award
On October 11, 2023, less than 3 months after Tiffany had been sexually assaulted, OHSU Hillsboro Medical Center posted a post on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter (“X”) that they had awarded Dr. Hildebrant an award for “Outstanding Contribution to Innovation in New Models of Clinical Care and Interdisciplinary Teams.” Tiffany was sexually assaulted by Dr. Hildebrant while she was supposed to be in the care of a Post Anesthesia Care Unit team.
“When I saw that OHSU Hillsboro Medical Center had posted on social media that they had given Dr. Hildebrant an award for “new models of clinical care and interdisciplinary teams” about 3 months after he raped me while I should have been in the care of a nursing team, I was so angry that my hands started shaking.”