Iowa surgeon faces charges of sexual harassment, unprofessional conduct
The Iowa Board of Medicine regulates the state's medical profession as part of the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing. (Photo by Getty Images, board seal courtesy the State of Iowa) The Iowa Board of Medicine has charged a Sioux City surgeon with sexual harassment.
The board has accused Dr. Phinit Phisitkul of sexual harassment, unprofessional conduct, and violating a state law that requires physicians to report any disciplinary action taken by a hospital that is related to competence or conduct and that results in practice restrictions lasting 10 days or more.
The board has not publicly disclosed when, where or how the alleged violations took place, or which hospital is alleged to have imposed the disciplinary action.
A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for April 24, 2025.
In February 2021, Phisitkul and the Sioux City clinic where he worked, Tri-State Specialists, were sued by Colleen Kissinger, then 67 years old, who alleged the clinic fired her from her job as an administrative assistant after she endured years of derogatory, age-related comments.
Kissinger alleged that Phisitkul had expressed a desire to hire younger, pretty nurses for the clinic and that after she was fired in March 2020, her position was filled by someone roughly 20 years younger.
As part of that lawsuit, Tri-State’s former CEO, Lee Hilka, gave a deposition and testified that Phisitkul had told him that he had been asked to resign from the University of Iowa Hospitals after two female students complained about him.
“When I met with him, he told me, he said, ‘Well, I’ve got a problem,’” Hilka testified, referring to Phisitkul. “I go, ‘What’s your problem?’ I knew this was coming, right? And he said, ‘I asked a student out for lunch, and she filed a complaint against me.’ Well, OK. And I said, ‘You want to expound and expand on that?’ He said, ‘No. And another girl also said the same thing, and the university asked me to leave.’”
In his own deposition, Phisitkul testified he has never been asked to leave any of the positions he has held in the medical profession, but he refused to answer questions about the UI students, arguing that such matters were irrelevant to the case at hand.
The court later ruled that Phisitkul had to answer the questions, but that given the “potentially embarrassing nature of the answer,” the information he provided would be sealed from public view.
During his deposition, Hilka also testified that he and Phisitkul were observing the Tri-State receptionists one day when Phisitkul told him changes needed to be made.
“We were staring at the receptionists, and there was the three people that I hired, all in their 60s,” Hilka testified. “And he said, ‘We’ve got to have more attractive — ,’ you know, he said, ‘more attractive, better-looking people up front.’ I said, ‘Well, first of all, the people that we have there are mature. They have been doing this job for, like, 20 years. They know how to diffuse a situation if a patient is upset. You know, a young person probably would panic. They know all about the insurance. They know all about co-pays. I would rather have that — you know, and they are always smiling. I would rather have that than somebody young, attractive, and that doesn’t know what a co-pay is, you know.’ And he said, ‘Well, we need younger people.’ And I said to him, you know, ‘Look, you know, you have had this issue before at the University of Iowa, and we don’t want to go there.’”
The lawsuit was eventually dropped by Kissinger with no public disclosure of any settlement that may have been reached.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch contacted Phisitkul for comment Thursday. An office staffer said Phisitkul was in surgery all day and would not be available.
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