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Emergency Doc Arrested After Sexual Assault Allegations

— Josiah Hill, MD, charged with rape and "indecent liberties taken by a healthcare professional"

MedpageToday
An aerial view of Olympic Medical Center

An emergency medicine physician in Washington state was arrested last week after an investigation into sexual assault allegations, .

Josiah Hill, MD, age 39, was charged with one count of second-degree rape of a vulnerable victim and three counts of , the reported.

Hill turned himself in to police last week and was originally being held in the Clallam County Jail on $1 million bail, which was subsequently by a judge who also ordered that Hill surrender his passport, be on electronic home monitoring, and not practice medicine.

The investigation began in April after a woman reported to the Port Angeles Police Department that she was sexually assaulted by a doctor while being treated in the emergency department (ED) at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, Washington, , a local TV news station.

After that report, three other women came forward with similar stories, and all four women identified Hill as their attacker.

The women reported that Hill made inappropriate comments before touching their breasts, according to court documents cited by the Peninsula Daily News. In another report, a woman said she was taken to the hospital by police and when she woke up, she was being sexually assaulted by a male doctor.

One woman allegedly sexually assaulted by Hill reported that he had asked her on a date even after she made comments about his wedding ring. The victim recalled Hill "making various comments on how much he loves breast implants and how he had gone to school for them," Detective Erik Smith wrote in the probable cause statement, as reported by the Peninsula Daily News.

Documents also noted that investigators obtained video surveillance footage of the ED that corroborated victims' description of events.

The charges in the arrest warrant pertain to three victims who experienced assault this year, and the investigation continues into the fourth victim's report, which occurred in 2021.

Hill has worked at Olympic Medical Center since July 2020, via an employment contract with Peninsula Emergency Services, but has been unemployed since the investigation began in April, according to reports.

In an emailed statement to 鶹ý, Olympic Medical Center (OMC) said it did not renew its contract with Peninsula Emergency Services when it expired on June 30.

"OMC has been fully cooperating with law enforcement's investigations, as well as regulatory bodies such as the Department of Health and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid [Services] that have since visited OMC upon our report of the allegations," the statement said. "Our top priority is patient and staff safety as we serve the community, and we will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement."

Hill still has an active medical license in Washington state, which also lists no enforcement actions against him. He graduated from the University of South Florida College of Medicine in 2017, according to DocInfo.org, but his Florida medical license expired a year ago.

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    Kristina Fiore leads MedPage’s enterprise & investigative reporting team. She’s been a medical journalist for more than a decade and her work has been recognized by Barlett & Steele, AHCJ, SABEW, and others. Send story tips to k.fiore@medpagetoday.com.