At a time when Mid-Columbia Medical Center is already under intense scrutiny due to The Dalles City Police Department testifying that hospital officials provided false and misleading information to them in the investigation of anesthesiologist Frederick Field, yet another potential embarrassment for Mid-Columbia Medical Center has arisen (Field recently pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 12 women). Jeffrey Neyle McAllister was arrested Wednesday, July 10, 2013, and charged with rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse of at least 3 women who were at the emergency room where he was employed as a registered nurse. The police have not yet revealed any locations other than Legacy Emanuel Hospital ER, where such sexual abuse took place.
However, the press release from law enforcement authorities states that “McAllister also has work history as a nurse at St. Vincent Hospital in Portland and the Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles, Oregon. McAllister has been placed on administrative leave by those employers.”
Over the next few days, answers to some interesting questions may be forthcoming. Was he placed on administrative leave by Mid-Columbia Medical Center or St. Vincent Hospital due to allegations of sexual misconduct against him? What background check on Mr. McAllister did MCMC, Legacy, and Providence do before they hired him? According to Max Bernstein of the Oregonian, Jeffrey McAllister was fired over allegations of sex abuse back in April of this year but he continued to work at MCMC and Providence. Why wasn’t Mr. McAllister suspended from all facilities after he was terminated at Legacy?
This firm currently has seven cases pending against Mid-Columbia Medical Center for its deliberate failure to investigate complaints against Dr. Field while continuing to allow him to administer anesthesia to female patients. We just learned that Jeffrey Neyle McAllister is the older brother of Dr. Marc McAllister, who is on staff as a urologist at Mid-Columbia Medical Center. It must be remembered that Dr. Marc McAllister was one of the doctors at the Mid-Columbia Medical Center who failed to adequately document or investigate his patient’s complaint back in February, 2011 that Dr. Field had placed her hand on Field’s penis during a surgery. Questions will need to be addressed about what Marc knew of his brother’s actions and when Marc knew it.
If you have any information regarding this ongoing investigation of Jeffrey Neyle McAllister please contact our firm by calling 503-224-2647.
UPDATE: In today’s Oregonian, Max Bernstein reports that Legacy learned back in September of 2012 that Jeffrey McAllister had sexually abused a patient and the nursing staff and a supervisor “blew off the complaints” and “basically called ‘the woman’ a liar.” It will be interesting to see what documentation exists of this complaint and what steps, if any, Legacy took to investigate the complaint. Stay tuned for more updates.