Resolution of the Sexual Harassment Issue at Etobicoke General Hospital

Case #10

Prepared for

Suzy Casimiro, the President & CEO;

and Board of Directors of William Osler Healthcare System

Prepared by

Pham Bao Ngoc Vuong -N01238584

Sheryl Joy Lomague Aspilla -N01323368

Jay Symon Vincent Parayno -N01325329

March 26th, 2020

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Date: March 26th, 2020
To: Suzy Casimiro, the President & CEO; and Board of Directors of William
Osler Healthcare System
From: Sheryl Aspilla, Ngoc Vuong, Jay Parayno
Subject: Implementation of a new Corporate Wellness Plan

This report provides information on how the sexual harassment case will be addressed. The
incident that occurred in the workplace regarding sexual harassment will also be explained from
the perspectives of stakeholders involved. With recommendations made by the coordinator of
health and wellness, a beneficial corporate wellness plan will be introduced in order to resolve
and prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

The new recommendation part of our corporate wellness plan includes providing informative
sessions on maintaining a sexual harassment free environment with mandatory attendance from
all employees and employers. Also, creating an employee advisory committee can give
employees further guidance in resolving any issues in relation to workplace harassment.

Through extensive research and thorough incident investigation, our implementation of the
corporate wellness plan aims to reduce rates of sexual harassment at our workplace and guide the
employees into feeling safer in the work environment.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to proceed with our recommendations on the human
resource issues in a hope of creating a safe, healthy, and harassment free workplace for our
medical staff.

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Executive Summary

This report has been prepared for Suzy Casimiro, the President & CEO, and the Board of
Directors of William Osler to explain the incidence of sexual harassment at Etobicoke General
Hospital. Within the report, there is a analysis of the perspectives from stakeholders involved
(employee, hospital administrator and human resources coordinator) as well as the
implementation of new recommendations to prevent the issue from recurring.

The purpose of discussing the perspectives of stakeholders, and understanding the decision of
implementing new recommendations is to create a sexual harassment free work environment for
our employees that will promote the hospital’s morale and goodwill.

Through performing an incident investigation and survey, we were able to determine that 35% of
the medical staff at Etobicoke General Hospital have experienced sexual harassment at work
(See Appendix A). By understanding the perspectives from our stakeholders and also using
supporting evidence from academic research, the severity of the effects of sexual harassment in
the hospital are justified.

This report recommends that the hospital administrator, employee, and human resource
coordinator commit to performing their designated roles to resolve the issue. These roles will
assist in efficiently implementing the recommendations of:
 The hospital administrator hiring a trained professional to provide information sessions
regarding prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace to speak to all employees.
 The hospital administrator selects employees for an employee advisory committee that
can assist the human resource coordinator in developing future decisions for employee
health and wellness.

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Table of Contents

Transmittal memo ...........................................................................................................................i

Executive summary.........................................................................................................................ii

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1

William Osler Healthcare System ......................................................................................1

Mission Vision and Values .................................................................................................1

HR Issue within the hospital ...........................................................................................................1

Purpose of the report ..........................................................................................................2

Research of sexual harassment in the workplace ...........................................................................2

Analysis & Evaluation of Key Stakeholders’ perspectives ............................................................4

Employee - Resident Representative ..................................................................................4

Employer - Hospital Administrator ....................................................................................4

Human Resource (HR) Coordinator ...................................................................................5

Decision(s) / Recommendation(s) ..................................................................................................6

References ......................................................................................................................................8

Appendices....................................................................................................................................10

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 Introduction

William Osler Healthcare System- Etobicoke General Hospital

Etobicoke General Hospital (EGH) is a full-service community hospital serving the communities
of Vaughan, Bolton, Caledon, east Mississauga and the northwest corner of Toronto and north
Etobicoke (William Osler Health System, n.d.). Every year, the hospital handles over 85,000
emergency department patient visits, delivers more than 2,800 babies, and performs
approximately 20,000 surgeries (William Osler Health System, n.d.). Etobicoke General Hospital
is being transformed to meet the needs of the community (William Osler Health System, n.d.)

Mission, Vision, and Values of Etobicoke General Hospital

Etobicoke General Hospital’s mission is to become a compassionate provider of patient-centered
care with innovative health care (William Osler Health System, n.d.). Etobicoke General
Hospital’s vision is to provide and maintain patient-inspired health care without boundaries
(William Osler Health System, n.d.). Etobicoke General Hospital values respect, excellence
accountability, diversity and innovation (William Osler Health System, n.d.)

HR Issue within the hospital

The Etobicoke General Hospital is committed to providing each patient with innovative
health care, exceptional service and compassion (William Osler Health System, n.d.). The
employees, physicians, and volunteers always work hard to improve health within the
community. Hence, ensuring an equal, safe, and comfortable working environment for the
employees is one of the utmost focuses of the hospital. Unfortunately, the HR department has
received a report on a sexual harassment case happened to one of the residents. More
specifically, the victim was noticed to have depressive symptoms and unable to stay focused
during work after being asked many times by an attending physician to have sex with them in
exchange for a good letter of recommendation. Moreover, after the sexual harassment incident
was discovered, several other medical staff in the hospital shared their experiences of sexual
harassment in the workplace at the past.
Sexual harassment within a workplace setting is illegal when it creates a hostile
environment including gender discrimination and unwanted sexual attention or when it involves

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quid pro quo sexual harassment, using sexual activity as a condition for professional or
educational treatment (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). It
poisons the work environment which affects the employees’ performance, focus and limits them
from reaching their full potential (Ontario Human Rights Commission, n.d.). Victims of sexual
harassment may suffer a variety of short and long-term effects on mental health such as
flashback memories, feelings of shame, isolation, shock, confusion which increase risks of
depression, anxiety, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and panic attacks (Kabat-Farr,
Crumley, 2019).

Purpose of the report

The purpose of this report is to address sexual harassment incident and present the findings of the
issues that the nurses and residents at Etobicoke General Hospital have been experiencing. The
report seeks the most effective approach to resolve the issues and create a sexual harassment
free, safe and comfortable workplace for our medical staff. The key stakeholders are the Resident
Representative, the Hospital Administrator and the Human Resource Coordinator. Their
perspectives will be discussed further in this report. The objectives of the report are:
1. To identify the challenges associated with sexual harassment in the workplace.
2. To gather evidence and research which provide grounds for each key stakeholder’s
perspective.
3. To analyze involved stakeholders’ views, decisions and the legal compliance relating to
the issue.
4. To figure out the most effective solution to eliminate sexual harassment issues within the
hospital environment.
5. To discuss the implementation of the new recommendations in order to fix the issues.

Research of sexual harassment in the workplace

“Not all sexual harassment is the same”, said Katherine Sharley, MD, PhD, Assistant
Dean at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. According to the National
Academies of Science Engineering Medicine (NASEM) report, the prevalence of sexual
harassment in medicine was surprisingly double that of other science and engineering majors,
with 48% of all trainees in the study reporting harassment from faculty or staff (NASEM, 2018).

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There are degrees of sexual harassment from microaggressions to sexual assault and coercion
(Paturel, 2019). The physician who tells dirty jokes to nurses is not the same as the attending
who promises medical students a good letter of recommendation in exchange for sexual favors.
Sexual harassment can be verbal and nonverbal behaviors which fall within three categories:
gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion (National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). A research article called “Sexual harassment -A
touchy subject for nurses” (2009) found that in 8 different hospitals in Australia, 60% of female
nurses and 34% of male nurses reported being victims of sexual harassment (Cogin, Fish, 2009).
In another report conducted in the U.S in 2018, 7% of physicians, 9% of medical residents, 11%
nurses and physician assistants reported experiencing sexual harassment (Kane, 2018). Also, in
the report, 47% of physicians and 54% of residents who reported being harassed, indicated that
they were harassed by their fellows which include physicians, administrators, nurses and nurse
practitioners (Kane, 2018). Additionally, accused sexual harassment cases in a medical care
facility are costly as in 2014, there were 639 lost-time injuries due to workplace harassment
including sexual harassment in the health-care sector in Ontario which results Canadian health
care system’s paying approximately a billion dollars (Lindzon, 2017).
After the incident, an investigation and survey on sexual harassment issues were carried
out at Etobicoke General Hospital. The findings show that 35% of our medical staff have
experienced sexual harassment during work and the most common inappropriate behaviors are
sexually offensive language, unwanted sexual attention and gender discriminatory behaviors (see
Appendix A). The survey also reveals that among those medical staff, 60% of them feel
uncomfortable and unsafe, 25% feel anxious and distracted while at work, 10% have depression
and acute stress and 5% were reported to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and cannot
come back to work during the past year (see Appendix B). Evidently, sexual harassment is a
major concern to Etobicoke General Hospital. Therefore, the employer needs to create a zero-
tolerance sexual harassment policy stop eliminate sexual harassment to protect the employees.

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 Analysis & Evaluation of Key Stakeholders’ perspectives

Employee - Resident Representative

Under the Canada Labour Code, every employee is entitled to work in a workplace free of sexual
harassment (Government of Canada, 2019). When workers socially conversed with the other
colleagues in the workplace, the resident representative discovered that one of the new residents
had symptoms of acute stress and depression due to being sexually harassed by a physician and
learnt that other residents and nurses experienced sexual harassment in the past. The resident
representative immediately reported the sexual harassment issues on behalf of the nurses and
residents to the administrator. As for this stakeholder’s perspective, they have made a right
decision which aligns with an employee’s responsibility to report all concerns of sexual
harassment or inappropriate sexual conduct to the HR director or a supervisor/manager in the
timely manner (Society for Human Resource Management, n.d). According to the Human Rights
Code (1990), every person has the right to work in a workplace free from unwelcome advances
or sexual solicitation by his or her employer or agent of the employer or by another employee
(see Appendix C). Therefore, the employees are encouraged and supported to confront any
inappropriate conduct or address the harasser to their supervisor or HR coordinator. The strength
in this stakeholder's perspective is that they are representing the employees, they witness or
know someone who experienced sexual harassment at work and, therefore, have a better insight
of the issues. The only and most challenging issue that the workers may have is that they may be
threatened or retaliated if the perpetrator is someone from the board of management. The
employees’ expectation of the outcome for this issue is to stop the sexual harassment in the
workplace which can remove stress, anxiety or depression that workers have experienced.

Employer - Hospital Administrator

The administrator of the Etobicoke General Hospital is in charge of managing the daily medical
facility including the health services, personnel, budget and policy (Province of Manitoba, n.d.).
According to Ontario Human Rights Commission, employers has responsibilities to maintain
work environment free from sexual harassment, take all the concerns and complaints of sexual
harassment seriously, report all incidents to Human Resources department to perform a prompt
investigation, provide medical support for the victim, and penalize the liable perpetrator in a

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timely manner (Ontario Human Rights Commission, n.d.) (See Appendix E). In the
administrator’s perspective, this is a major problem because a hostile environment can lead to
job dissatisfaction, burnout, increased stress, and poor performance, increased absenteeism, staff
shortage, insufficient medical services, low morale, increased healthcare costs, and potential
legal expenses (Paturel, 2019). According to the Government of Canada, every employer should
consult a policy issue regarding about sexual harassment, explain employees of their rights under
the protection Canadian Human Rights Act and post copies of the sexual harassment policy
where they are likely to be seen by employees (Government of Canada, 2019). The administrator
can allow the victim to work separately from the person they are not comfortable with by
sectioning them in different areas or shift adjustment. The weakness for the administrator’s
perspective is that they do not have the legal action to eliminate a perpetrator because they do not
have hard evidence to prove that a person is sexually harassing medical staff at the hospital. In
order to have the legal action eliminate a perpetrator, they need a witness or a film to prove this
act is happening. Therefore, the administrator will need the cooperation from the medical staff in
the process of investigating and regulating new policy to resolve the sexual harassment issues
effectively.

Human Resource (HR) Coordinator

The health and safety of employees is one of the HR coordinator’s responsibilities. Therefore,
the HR coordinator needs to ensure the complainant and the accused individual understand the
seriousness of sexual harassment incident (Society for Human Resource Management, n.d.).
Throughout the investigation process, the HR coordinator is obligated to assist the hospital
administrator and submit a written report to the designated company officials (Society for
Human Resource Management, n.d.). In the case between the new resident and the attending, the
attending violated the Human Rights Code because the physician had used a letter of
recommendation as a threat to ask for a sexual favor (see appendix D) (Ontario Human Rights
Commission, n.d.). In the HR coordinator’s perspective, the perpetrator is subject to appropriate
discipline or even fired depends on the degree of their sexual harassment act. Since the HR
coordinator can notify the police if the incident involves any criminal activities, the situation
would be out of the HR department’s control if the perpetrator forced the victim to have sex with
them without consent. Criminal penalties will be executed toward the perpetrator in that case.

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The strength in this stakeholder’s perspective is that they are not closed to the medical staff so
there is no bias involved in the process of investigating the incident. However, HR coordinator
has limited ability in resolving the incident if the sexual harassment complaint involves senior
management at the vice-president level or above (Society for Human Resource Management,
n.d). Then, the hospital will need an external party to handle the matters.

Decision(s) / Recommendation(s)
The coordinator of health and wellness has decided that from looking over the results of
the incident investigation, we will follow through with four procedures starting March 27th,
2020. These four procedures will involve our new recommendations being, providing
information sessions to workers on creating a sexual harassment free environment and, creating
an employee advisory committee that could give employees further guidance in resolving any
issues in relation to workplace harassment. The first recommendation will be that the human
resource coordinator will ensure that affected victims of sexual harassment have a choice to be
reached with medical attention. Afterwards, our hospital administrator will temporarily suspend
or determine a consequence of leaving the workplace to the individual who performed sexual
harassment. If the hospital administrator chooses to bring back the suspended individual in the
future, we will ask that work stations of the victim and harasser should be a farther distance
apart.
We will then conduct information training sessions in the workplace. A professional will
be hired by the hospital administrator to come in and speak about the issue in a 1-hour session.
This hired professional will be asked to do this 3 times a year. These sessions will occur during
working hours and the employees will be notified about the timings and dates of the information
sessions, and the purpose of the information session. This important message will be
communicated to all workers through email. The follow up email will also include basic
information on why sexual harassment is wrong in the workplace.
The professional speaker will get paid $150 for each training session he or she teaches
which will be for three sessions in the day, three times a year. During the training sessions we
will also provide a 15-minute break in between the hour training session where we will provide
snacks and coffee at a budget for $30 for each training session. The employees will also be paid
for this as it will be during working hours so that the company does not have to additionally pay

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the workers for training time outside of working hours. We will split the training for our
employees into three groups so that there will be two thirds of our employees still working
during the training sessions so that the company will continue to operate and there will be no lost
money from stopping company operation. In total, this plan should cost the company an
additional $180 per session meaning per training day for the three training sessions it will cost
$540. As there will be three training days in the year, the yearly cost will be $1620.
Another recommendation will be implemented is that we will create an employee
advisory committee. This employee advisory committee will consist of a group of our selected
employees including the resident representative, that are able to meet regularly once a month for
1 hour during working hours to discuss issues affecting them in the workplace and share their
input on benefit programs provided to them. The role of our employee advisory committee is to
assist the Human Resources coordinator in providing information to the rest of the employees
regarding new wellness initiatives that are discussed in the committee meeting. In addition to
assisting the Human resource coordinator, our employee advisory committee will also listen in to
what their coworkers’ opinions and what they have to say about work related issues, in which
these topics will be mentioned in the monthly meetings. The hospital administrator will also have
to listen in on to what is said in each meeting and accommodate to some of the needs and issues
that the committee talks about whether it is sexual harassment related or any other issue that is
work related. The goal of implementing this recommendation is to allow employees to feel
comfortable with sharing their opinions on work related issues in order to help employees feel
safer at work and so that work related issues can be solved or prevented immediately.

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 References
Cogin, J. & Fish, A. (2009). Sexual harassment--A touchy subject for nurses. Journal of Health
Organization and Management, 23, 442-462. doi: 10.1108/14777260910979326
Government of Canada. (May 23, 2019). Sexual harassment. Retrieved March 23, 2020 from
https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/labour-
standards/reports/sexual-harassment.html
Kabat-Farr, D., Crumley, E.T. (January 31, 2019). Sexual harassment in healthcare: A
psychological perspective. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 24(1),
manuscript 4. doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol24No01Man04
Kane, L. (June 13, 2018). Sexual harassment of physicians: Report 2018. Medscape. Retrieved
March 23, 2020 from https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/sexual-harassment-
of-physicians-6010304
Lindzon, J. (June 28, 2017). Workplace abuse comes at steep cost for nurses, taxpayers.
Retrieved March 23, 2020 from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-
business/careers/management/workplace-abuse-comes-at-steep-cost-for-nurses-
taxpayers/article35461112/
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Policy and Global Affairs;
Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine; Committee on the
Impacts of Sexual Harassment in Academia. Benya FF, Widnall SE, Johnson PA,
editors. (June 12, 2018). Sexual harassment of women: climate, culture, and
consequences in academic sciences, engineering, and medicine. Washington
(DC): National Academies Press (US), 2. Retrieved March 23, 2020 from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519455/
National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine. (June 12, 2018). To prevent sexual
harassment, academic institutions should go beyond legal compliance to promote
a change in culture: current approaches have not led to decline in harassment.
Retrieved March 23, 2020 from
https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2018/06/to-prevent-sexual-harassment-
academic-institutions-should-go-beyond-legal-compliance-to-promote-a-change-
in-culture-current-approaches-have-not-led-to-decline-in-harassment

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Ontario Human Rights Commission. (n.d.). Sexual harassment in employment (fact sheet).
Retrieved March 23, 2020 from http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/sexual-harassment-
employment-fact-sheet
Paturel, A. (February 14, 2019). Sexual harassment in medicine. Association of American
Medical Colleges. Retrieved March 23, 2020 from https://www.aamc.org/news-
insights/sexual-harassment-medicine
Province of Manitoba. (n.d.). Hospital administration 1 and 2 [PDF]. Retrieved March 23, 2020
from
https://www.gov.mb.ca/csc/labour/program/pubs/pdf/h/hospital_administrator.pdf
Society for Human Resource Management. (n.d.). Sexual harassment policy and
complaint/investigation procedure. Retrieved March 23, 2020 from
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-
samples/policies/pages/cms_000554.aspx
William Osler Health System. (n.d.). Mission vision values. Retrieved March 23, 2020 from
http://www.williamoslerhs.ca/about-osler/care-quality-and-governance/mission-
vision-values

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Appendix A

Figure 1. Types of sexual harassment experiences among medical staff at Etobicoke General Hospital
(2019-2020).

Appendix B

Figure 2. Psychological effects of sexual harassment experiences among medical staff at Etobicoke

General Hospital (2019-2020)

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Appendix C

Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19

Sexual harassment
Harassment because of sex in accommodation
(1) Every person who occupies accommodation has a right to freedom from harassment because of sex,
sexual orientation, gender identity or gender
expression by the landlord or agent of the landlord or by an occupant of the same building. R.S.O. 1990,
c. H.19, s. 7 (1); 2012, c. 7, s. 6 (1).

Harassment because of sex in workplaces

(2) Every person who is an employee has a right to freedom from harassment in the workplace because of
sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or
gender expression by his or her employer or agent of the employer or by another employee. R.S.O. 1990,
c. H.19, s. 7 (2); 2012, c. 7, s. 6 (2).

Sexual solicitation by a person in position to confer benefit, etc.

(3) Every person has a right to be free from,
(a) a sexual solicitation or advance made by a person in a position to confer, grant or deny a
benefit or advancement to the person where the person
making the solicitation or advance knows or ought reasonably to know that it is unwelcome; or
(b) a reprisal or a threat of reprisal for the rejection of a sexual solicitation or advance where the
reprisal is made or threatened by a person in a
position to confer, grant or deny a benefit or advancement to the person. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19, s.
7 (3).

Note. Human Rights Code, R.S.O, c. H.19. (1990). Freedom from discrimination. Sexual Harassment. Reprinted
from Human Rights Code, R.S.O, c. H.19, by Government of Ontario. (1990). Retrieved March 23, 2020 from
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h19?search=sexual+harassment+in+the+workplace

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Appendix D

Under the Ontario Human Rights Code, sexual harassment is “engaging in a course of vexatious comment
or conduct that is known or ought to be known to be unwelcome.” In some cases, one incident could be
serious enough to be sexual harassment. Some examples of sexual harassment are:
 Asking for sex in exchange for a benefit or a favor
 Repeatedly asking for dates, and not taking “no” for an answer
 Demanding hugs
 Making unnecessary physical contact, including unwanted touching
 Using rude or insulting language or making comments toward women (or men, depending on the
circumstances)
 Calling people sex-specific derogatory names
 Making sex-related comments about a person’s physical characteristics or actions
 Saying or doing something because you think a person does not conform to sex-role stereotypes
 Posting or sharing pornography, sexual pictures or cartoons, sexually
 Explicit graffiti, or other sexual images (including online)
 Making sexual jokes
 Bragging about sexual prowess.

Note. Ontario Human Rights Commission. (n.d.). Sexual harassment in employment (fact sheet). Reprinted from
Ontario Human Rights Commission (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2020 from http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/sexual-
harassment-employment-fact-sheet

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Appendix E

Employers operating in Ontario have a legal duty to take steps to prevent and respond to sexual
harassment. They must make sure they have poison-free environments that respect human rights. From a
human rights perspective, it is not acceptable to ignore sexual harassment, whether or not someone has
formally complained or made a human rights complaint. When deciding if an employer has met its duty
to respond to a human rights claim, tribunals are likely to think about:
 The procedures in place at the time to deal with discrimination and harassment
 How quickly the organization responded to the complaint
 How seriously the complaint was treated
 The resources made available to deal with the complaint
 If the organization provided a healthy environment for the person who complained
 How well the person who complained was told about the action taken.

Note. Ontario Human Rights Commission. (n.d.). Sexual harassment in employment (fact sheet).
Reprinted from Ontario Human Rights Commission. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2020 from
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/sexual-harassment-employment-fact-sheet

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