Columbia University and its Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) outlined this week the corrective actions it is implementing, including leadership changes, following an independent review conducted to address its role in abuse by a former gynecologist.
Robert Hadden was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2020 and in 2023 was convicted for inducing four patients to cross state lines for examinations in which he sexually assaulted them, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He had earlier pleaded guilty to a single count of a criminal sexual act in the third degree and forcible touching in a deal with the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Hadden left the CUIMC in 2012, but, before that point, had abused more than 1,000 patients over the course of his 25-year career at the organization. According to the independent review’s 156-page report, published this week, the first patient complaint regarding his conduct was made by a minor in “the late 1980s.”
Columbia University agreed to the investigation in 2023 as part of a “multi-pronged plan” to do right by Hadden’s victims and prevent future abuse. Across multiple agreements, the organization has entered voluntary settlements of more than $1 billion with over 1,000 of Hadden’s former patients. including a $100 million Survivors’ Settlement Fund launched in early 2024 for which the deadline to submit a claim has been extended to June 15.
The report—the result of interviews with more than 120 witnesses, half of which were survivors of Hadden’s abuse, and over 120,000 reviewed documents—describes 16 specific instances in which complaints about Hadden from patients and other practitioners that were not escalated to leadership, as well as “more general discussions about Hadden among his coworkers that suggest some awareness that he had inappropriate contact with patients.” There were at least five complaints that were escalated to physician leadership, though the review found “scant records” of any types of complaints among saved files.
All told, the investigation landed on three core reasons Hadden’s abuse was permitted to occur for so long: ineffective use of medical chaperoning, obstacles to patient and staff reporting of physician misconduct and failure to effectively respond to the misconduct reports that did reach leadership. Frequently described in those conclusions were a lack of policy governing how to document and handle patient complaints as well as a “hierarchical professional environment” that discouraged criticism of doctors and enabled Hadden’s manipulation.
An open letter from the university and the CUIMC accompanying the report’s publication outlined several efforts and institutional changes it has begun to implement or will pursue in response to the investigator’s recommendations.
Among these commitments are clearly stated chaperone policies and requirements, expanded trauma-informed trainings, strengthened mandatory reporting and expanded oversight of sexual misconduct policies. The letter also called out, alongside the voluntary settlements, a partnership with anti-sexual-violence nonprofit RAINN to establish a free and confidential helpline for victims and others along with the use of a new professionalism tool for identifying inappropriate provider behavior.
“We are clear about the institutional failures that allowed Hadden to exploit the system, abuse patients, and avoid detection for as long as he did,” the letter reads. “While we cannot undo the harm of the past, we are firmly committed to ensuring that nothing like this can happen again.”
The tail end of the letter also includes two personnel updates at the university and NewYork-Presbyterian/CUIMC.
Mary D’Alton, M.D., will be stepping down from her position as chair of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the CUIMC and obstetrician and gynecologist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/CUIMC. She is reportedly continuing her clinical practice.
Lee Goldman, M.D., formerly the dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine and chief executive of the medical center, is also retiring.
D’Alton and Goldman both held administrative roles above Hadden, including at the time of his initial arrest in 2012. D’Alton is referenced multiple times in the report as defending Hadden’s character and previously clean record to others at the time of the arrest and acknowledged having a role in an initial leadership decision to permit him to return to work.
Shortly following the release of the report, a joint statement from a group of survivors and survivor advocates described the report as “the bare minimum accountability for failures that should have been addressed years ago.”
On D’Alton and Goldman, they criticized the framing of their role changes as a transition and retirement and the inclusion of language lauding their work at the organizations.
“That is not accountability,” they wrote. “Allowing leaders responsible for overseeing this crisis to quietly ‘retire’ in good standing raises serious questions about what conversations occurred behind closed doors and what accountability was negotiated instead of demanded.”
More broadly, the survivors described the investigation’s hard stop at 2012 as a severe limitation that avoids their claims of “the institutional cover-up we believe Columbia engaged in for years after Hadden was finally removed.” They also criticized the investigation’s focus on “lower-level procedural failures that were already obvious” rather than the role of senior leadership and the board of trustees.
“That is why the ongoing investigation by the New York Attorney General is so critical,” they wrote. “Only at truly independent investigation—not one commissioned and scoped by the institution itself—can determine who orchestrated the institutional response, who suppressed information, and who must ultimately be held accountable.”
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