Dr. Ben Danielson Sues Seattle Children's Hospital Alleging Unaddressed Serious Racism; Hospital Denies Allegations

by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue

A lawsuit filed on Oct. 13 by Dr. Ben Danielson, formerly the head of Seattle Children's Hospital's (SCH) Odessa Brown Children's Clinic, lays out an array of allegations of racial bias at SCH, related both to Dr. Danielson's experience of employment there and the organization's general attitude toward minorities.

Danielson served as the director of the clinic from 1999 to 2020, when he resigned in protest over the same concerns outlined in the suit. During his tenure, Danielson became a fixture of the Central District and South Seattle communities his clinic served, beloved for his work both in the clinic and in the community, where he fought for equitable access to care and an end to displacement of the clinic's Black and Brown neighbors.

When he resigned, a colleague at the clinic described it as "a terrible loss" in an interview with Crosscut's David Kroman. One of Danielson's patients, Carla Saulter, told Kroman that replacing Danielson was impossible, and that he was a "once-in-a-lifetime person." Local luminaries, including King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay and rapper Macklemore, sent a letter to Children's demanding the organization address Danielson's concerns.

Three years after his exit, Danielson's suit seeks damages for the discrimination he alleges he endured, as well as what the suit also characterized as a pattern of retaliation that developed after he began calling out issues of bias at the institution.

After laying out the basic facts of Danielson's employment at Children's, the suit contends that "Dr. Danielson consistently raised concerns that systemic racial issues affected the quality of care provided to Black and Brown families, resulting in diminished medical outcomes."

As evidence, the suit cites Danielson's concerns related to hospital staff's use of the phrase "Code Purple," which was a code word staff used to alert security when they felt uncomfortable or threatened. According to the suit, a 2008 report found that staff were twice as likely to use this code word in situations involving Black or Brown patients. Despite Danielson advocating for reform, a 2018 report showed no change in those statistics.

Code Purple no longer exists, having been phased out in January of 2023 for something Children's calls "Adaptive Social Response." A Seattle Times story from April 2021 found that while hospital leadership was well aware of Code Purple disparities, it had yet to make any progress in reducing those disparities.

While Danielson's frustrations with Code Purple play a major role in the suit, perhaps the most startling allegation it contains involves an incident in 2010, when a "key administrator" referred to Danielson "as a n*****," but was allowed to keep his position until he retired nearly a decade later.

"The failure to act sent a clear message to Dr. Danielson and the offending manager: racist behavior will be tolerated, even if reported," the suit alleges.

"Dr. Danielson could not reconcile the hospital's tacit acceptance of the use of the racial slur with [Odessa Brown Children's Clinic's] mission to serve Black and Brown children and families who share his racial identity," it continues. "Over time, he internalized the indignities of systemic inequities at SCH as he watched the hospital treat his patients with the same disregard he experienced as the target of racially hostile language."

Danielson's concerns were ignored, the suit further alleges, complaining that "as recently as 2018, in a meeting with SCH's CEO Dr. Jeff Sperring, the CFO of the organization declared that there is no such thing as systemic racism."

Ultimately, Danielson's advocacy put him in the hot seat, his suit contends. After sharing his concerns in a presentation to the hospital's board, he found himself in the crosshairs of an internal investigation beginning in the spring of 2020, he claims. While this investigation initially centered on an alleged HIPAA violation related to COVID-19, "Dr. Danielson was informed in a Zoom call with Dr. Sperring and Dr. Leslie Walker-Harding that, while they had not found a HIPAA violation, they decided to broaden the scope of the investigation to examine Dr. Danielson's leadership and gather complaints anyone had about him."

The hospital revealed in its answer to Danielson's suit that its investigation concluded that he had shared an employee's protected health information with other employees at the Odessa Brown and Carolyn Downs clinics, "specifically, that the employee had tested positive for COVID-19."

"Dr. Danielson continued raising issues of bias with SCH in the summer and fall of 2020, but his concerns were ignored. He also faced second-guessing and scrutiny he recognized as pretext to set him up for termination," the suit concludes. He chose to resign in November of 2020.

In reaction to his resignation and the South Seattle community's demands for accountability that stemmed from it, SCH hired former Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate Danielson's complaints. Danielson's suit alleges that SCH never released that report, instead forming a "Health Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan."

While his suit does not say so explicitly, it implies that Danielson viewed this action plan as less than adequate and would have preferred to see Holder's report shared with the public.

SCH, in its formal answer to the lawsuit, says Holder's firm did prepare "non-privileged" reports for the public and released them in August of 2021.

The suit concludes with Danielson's claims for damages under the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD). Under this law, both discrimination itself and retaliation against those who make claims of discrimination are prohibited.

SCH, for its part, said no such discrimination occurred.

Regarding the issues around bias in Code Purple calls, SCH wrote in its response that it "specifically denies that it 'ignored' Dr. Danielson's pleas to curb the racially biased use of any policy at the hospital."

As for the administrator who used the slur in reference to Danielson, SCH had this to say:

"[SCH] ADMITS sometime around 2009 it was informed that an allegation was being made that a member of management had referred to Dr. Danielson using a derogatory racial epithet. Dr. Danielson did not raise the concern and was not present when the racial epithet was allegedly used. SCH conducted an investigation into the allegation but, because of the hearsay nature of the complaint, did not substantiate that it occurred."

The administrator received coaching on workplace policies, SCH's response continues, and was ultimately asked to resign in January of 2021 (outlasting Danielson by several months). Furthermore, SCH's response adds, Danielson never brought it up until he was on his way out, "when he was attempting to negotiate a severance in connection with his separation from his position at [the Odessa Brown Children's Clinic]."

The remainder of SCH's answers deny that Sperring, the CEO, ever doubted the existence of systemic racism, that Danielson's advocacy over racial bias resulted in his investigation, or that it had ever ignored Danielson's concerns about Code Purple or any other incidences of racial bias. It also seems to deny Danielson's employment with SCH, despite his prominence as head of a clinic explicitly run by SCH, arguing that he was an employee of the University of Washington (where he currently works) and Children's University Medical Group, a nonprofit pediatric group practice of which he was a member, not an employee.

Finally, in its own affirmative arguments, SCH contends that Danielson's "damages, if any, were caused by the negligence or fault of others, including but not limited to the negligence or fault of [Danielson] himself."

A spokesperson for SCH said of the suit, "As our response lays out, Seattle Children's disputes Dr. Danielson's claims and specifically the allegations that leaders demonstrated a lack of concern about racism or an unwillingness to address or acknowledge its existence.

"Seattle Children's is committed to caring for all patients and families, and we are disappointed by Dr. Danielson's decision to pursue this matter after voluntarily leaving the organization more than three years ago. Our top priority always has been, and will continue to be, to provide compassionate, equitable, and critical care to the patients and families we serve."

On Oct. 23, SCH filed a "motion for reassignment and affidavit of prejudice," requesting that the case be assigned to a different judge, which is allowed under Washington law. Children's lead attorney Portia R. Moore, of the firm Davis Wright Tremaine, filed a declaration in support of this motion, stating she believes "that a fair and impartial trial in this case cannot be had before the Honorable David Whedbee."

Whedbee, to whom the case was initially assigned, spent 12 years of his career as a civil rights lawyer, while also serving on the board of the ACLU of Washington. He also spent several years working as an immigration attorney helping French-speaking African asylum seekers and obtained a master's degree in French decolonization.

In a hearing on Nov. 3, SCH's request was granted, with the Clerk of the Court transferring the case to Judge Ken Schubert. Schubert is not a civil rights lawyer by trade, but he is currently the co-chair of the court's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and has served on various boards related to minority issues in the justice system.

A trial date for the suit is set for Oct. 14, 2024.

Editors' Note: This article was changed on 11/09/2023 to update information about a Seattle Children's Hospital spokesperson.

Tobias Coughlin-Bogue is a journalist based in Seattle. His work has appeared in Vice, The Stranger, Crosscut, and Thrasher Magazine, among other outlets. He was most recently the associate editor of Real Change News.

📸 Featured Image: Pediatrician Ben Danielson. (Photo: Susan Fried)