If you experienced sexual abuse in a hospital, clinic, nursing home, rehabilitation center, or other health care facility, your safety and well-being should come first. If you are in immediate danger, contact emergency services or local authorities right away.

You may also want to seek care from a trusted medical provider, therapist, counselor, or victim advocate. Abuse in a medical setting can be especially traumatic because patients often rely on health care providers during vulnerable moments.

If possible, preserve anything that may help document what happened, including messages, appointment records, discharge paperwork, patient portal communications, names of staff members, witness information, incident reports, or complaints made to the facility.

You do not have to navigate this alone. An attorney can help you understand your rights, protect your privacy, and determine whether the health care facility or another responsible party may be legally accountable.

A hospital, health care facility, medical professional, or staff member may be held responsible if they committed sexual abuse or failed to take reasonable steps to protect patients, residents, or visitors from sexual abuse.

These cases may involve hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, rehabilitation centers, psychiatric facilities, urgent care centers, or other medical settings.

A facility may be liable if it failed to properly screen, train, supervise, or remove a doctor, nurse, aide, technician, employee, contractor, or other person who had access to patients.

In some cases, the medical professional or staff member who committed the abuse may also be held personally responsible. A claim may pursue accountability from both the individual abuser and the hospital or health care facility that allowed the abuse to occur or failed to respond appropriately.

Health care facilities may also be responsible if they ignored warning signs, failed to investigate complaints, allowed unsafe access to vulnerable patients, or failed to follow required reporting and safety procedures.

Sexual abuse in a health care setting may involve situations where a patient was sedated, medicated, unconscious, disabled, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to give consent.

If this happened to you, it was not your fault. Patients deserve to be safe and protected while receiving medical care, especially when they are physically vulnerable or unable to protect themselves.

These cases may require a careful review of medical records, staffing records, facility policies, medication records, surveillance information, witness statements, and prior complaints. An attorney can help investigate what happened and determine whether the facility failed to protect you.

No amount of money can undo the trauma caused by sexual abuse, but a civil lawsuit may help survivors pursue accountability and financial support for the harm they experienced.

Compensation may include:

• Counseling, therapy, and mental health treatment
• Medical expenses related to the abuse
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress and trauma
• Lost income or reduced earning capacity
• Loss of quality of life
• Other long-term effects of abuse

A lawsuit may also help expose unsafe practices, uncover institutional failures, and help protect others from being harmed in the future.

Sexual abuse cases involving hospitals and health care facilities require compassion, discretion, and the resources to investigate powerful institutions. Survivors deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and privacy throughout the legal process.

Morgan & Morgan is America’s Largest Injury Law Firm, with more than 1,000 attorneys and over 35 years of experience handling serious injury and abuse-related claims. The firm has recovered more than $30 billion for clients and has the resources to investigate complex cases involving hospitals, health care facilities, medical staff, contractors, and institutional failures.

If you experienced sexual abuse in a medical setting, Morgan & Morgan can review your case, explain your legal options, and help you take the next step at your own pace.

Morgan & Morgan works on a contingency fee basis, meaning the Fee Is Free™—you only pay if we win your case. You can start with a free, confidential case evaluation.