Each state has its own set of statutes and regulations on licensing doctors, accommodating patients who wish to file complaints, and releasing information about physicians who have been subject to discipline and legal action. On this page, we’re sharing the key findings regarding Hawaii, which we will continue to update as the series progresses.
Key fact: The state only keeps disciplinary information on its website for five years, one of the most limited periods in the nation.
“Then, unfortunately, I directed the conversation toward the advantages and disadvantages of different ways to have intercourse, stating for example that some women prefer some way better than another, or that some difficulties can be overcome if the man acts very gentle, etc. etc. This was certainly very inappropriate.”
— A doctor to the state board. He was accused of lewd remarks with a patient and touching her breast. The state rejected an examiner’s recommendation that his license be suspended and decided on a conditional license. Among the restrictions: He had to attend Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous.
Dr. Robert McCormick Browne
Over decades, Browne drugged and molested dozens of students at a school where he worked as its designated psychiatrist. Authorities said he targeted male students for abuse that went on from about 1958 to 1985.
He committed suicide in 1991 after a student threatened to expose him.
A lawsuit against the school was filed in 2014, and a second one was filed this year. The plaintiffs allege that high-level administrators at the school were told of Browne’s sexual abuse of students and failed to act, then undertook a cover-up over many years to conceal his abuse.
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