Speaking in the video, Knox says the clinic aims to get involved early in child abuse cases. Barbara Knox is seen in a Catholic Health Association of the United States video recognizing the work of Alaska CARES, a statewide child abuse forensic clinic. Knox declined to comment through a Providence spokesperson. “There’s still a strong, competent team that’s dedicated to the care of Alaska’s most vulnerable children and families,” she said. “We take these concerns very seriously, and per our normal process, Providence is conducting an investigation into those concerns.”Īnastasia Kenney, a former family care coordinator at Alaska CARES who also described a toxic work environment, said that families can still safely bring children to the clinic, despite the problems. “Providence is aware of increasing concerns about the workplace environment at Alaska CARES,” a spokesperson for the hospital said in a statement. “I felt articulate in my concerns,” she said. Duran-Wood said she brought concerns about Knox to Providence officials multiple times without a response before her position was eliminated in March 2021. Sarah Duran-Wood, a former forensic nurse at the clinic, said she believes in the work of her colleagues who remain at the clinic but questions Knox’s leadership. In Anchorage, all six Alaska CARES medical staff members there when Knox took over - advanced nurse practitioners and forensic nurses charged with examining children believed to be victims of abuse - quit or saw their positions eliminated over the past year. On Friday, a Dane County, Wisconsin jury quickly acquitted a day care provider who the state criminally charged after Knox declared a child in her care was the victim of “obvious child abuse.” Knox had been scheduled to be a “key witness” in the five-day trial, but the prosecution removed her name from the witness list, and Judge Susan Crawford ordered both parties to refrain from mentioning her findings. Other defendants, proclaiming innocence, remain in prison and have appealed their cases. That included Providence, which hired Knox as Alaska’s top child abuse pediatrician later that year.Īlthough Knox once testified she had never made a mistaken diagnosis of child abuse, Wisconsin Watch found a dozen instances in which Knox’s suspicions of abuse were rejected by officials in the criminal justice system, by child welfare workers and medical specialists. A settlement agreement shielded details of her exit from future employers. She left that job in 2019 after being placed on paid leave while the UW investigated claims that Knox bullied and intimidated colleagues who disagreed with her clinical approach. Knox formerly led the UW’s Child Protection Program in partnership with American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison. Alaska CARES declined to confirm Knox’s employment status. Those sources declined to be named for fear of retaliation. Two sources with direct knowledge of the clinic operations confirmed that Knox was placed on leave pending an investigation. Providence, which houses Alaska CARES, is investigating the clinic’s workplace environment. Knox now heads Alaska CARES, a statewide child abuse forensic clinic operated by Providence that, over the past two years, has lost its entire medical staff to resignations or eliminated positions, the Anchorage Daily News has learned. Seven current and former employees of Providence Alaska Medical Center say they made dozens of complaints about Knox’s management and medical judgment to supervisors, with no response for months. Barbara Knox, UW’s former top child abuse pediatrician, is drawing similar scrutiny at her new job in Alaska. Half of them are at least 55 years old. About 100 of them retired and more than 120 cut back on their hours in 2019, the report says.Two years after leaving the University of Wisconsin amid allegations of workplace bullying, Dr. Nearly one-quarter of all active physicians in the state are at least 65 years old. Meanwhile, Hawaii’s medical workforce continues to age. “Hospital facilities may not be up to their expectation and the atmosphere may not be what they want it to be,” Withy said. Infrastructure can be a deterrent as well. Kelley Withy, director of the JABSOM Hawaii/Pacific Basin Area Health Education Center, says doctors choose to leave Hawaii for various reasons. The exodus represents about 5% of the 3,000 full-time physicians who work in the islands.ĭoctors also left their practices here to care for their ill and aging parents on the mainland and because of lower pay, lower reimbursement and poor job market for their spouses, said Dr. Roughly 150 doctors left Hawaii this year because of the high cost of living, lack of educational opportunities for their children and other factors, according to the latest annual Hawaii Physician Workforce Assessment.
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