Santa Barbara-based Sansum Clinic fired multiple employees on Wednesday after their involvement in a viral video showing urgent care clinic staff mocking patients.
The video, which was uploaded to TikTok, showed clinic staff posing around wet spots on examination tables. That video went viral over the weekend, drawing outrage from the community.
Sutter Health, which Sansum Clinic joined in 2023, confirmed Tuesday that the employees in the video worked at the Urgent Care Clinic at 215 Pesetas Lane in Santa Barbara. The person who uploaded the video was a former employee, and was not employed when the video was shared online.
Representatives of the health care system released another statement Wednesday stating that Sutter Health has “terminated the employees responsible for the inappropriate and insensitive photos posted on social media.”
They did not respond to questions about how many people involved in the video were fired, or whether the employees were all medical staff.
“This unacceptable behavior is an outright violation of our policies, shows a lack of respect for our patients and will not be tolerated,” Sutter Health said in a statement.
Sutter Health/Sansum Clinic announced that the people identified in the video were put on administrative leave on Tuesday, saying the video was against its policies. Then, on Wednesday, the organization put out another statement saying people had been terminated.
Sutter Health said it will reinforce its social media policies with its staff.
“We expect all team members to live our patients-first mission and uphold the highest standards of compassion, professionalism and respect,” the company said. “We are using this inappropriate incident to reinforce our comprehensive policies with all our team members across the organization as part of our commitment to providing all patients with high-quality, compassionate care.”
The original video was uploaded to TikTok over the weekend and gained traction early this week. In response, Sutter Health received negative comments across its Yelp and Google reviews, as well as its Facebook and Instagram accounts, criticizing the company for the actions of its employees.
The former Sansum Clinic employee who uploaded the video later deleted it and changed their account to private.
Sansum Clinic operates a health care system including primary care, specialty care and urgent care clinics across Santa Barbara County.