Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has banned a Beverly Hills obstetrician-gynecologist from practicing at its facilities following an investigation into “patient complaints,” according to a spokesperson.
According to Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Barry Brock, a longtime physician who advertised a low rate of cesarean births, has had his hospital privileges revoked and the case has been reported to the Medical Board of California.
Its spokesman said, “The type of behavior alleged about Dr. Brock is contrary to Cedars-Sinai’s core values and the trust we strive to earn every day with our patients.”
Brock, 74, has denied any wrongdoing and said he waived his privileges without a “fact investigation” of the allegations or a “hearing on the merits.” Cedars-Sinai did not immediately respond to those claims.
In August, a few weeks after his facilities at Cedars-Sinai were suspended pending an investigation, Brock sent an email to current and former patients announcing he was retiring from medicine at the end of the month, saying he was unable to provide the care his patients needed because of “the uncertainty of how long this process will take.”
Neither Cedars-Sinai nor the medical board declined to discuss details of the allegations because they said they are confidential under the law.
Nine former patients have spoken to the Times about their alleged experiences with Brock, and two also shared complaints they sent to Cedars-Sinai.
Written complaints and other records — including complaints to the state medical board and police reports — allege inappropriate comments, unnecessary physical exams, faulty medical procedures and pressure exerted on a patient when she sought a cesarean section.
Brock, who was in private practice and not employed by Cedars-Sinai at the time of his firing, denied any allegations of sexual misconduct and said that “these few anonymous allegations” were not indicative of his skill or “my character, which I have demonstrated day in and day out in my practice and delivery room for 46 years.”
He said Cedars-Sinai had only provided a summary of the complaints, and that asking the patients involved to defend themselves without identifying them was “not proper procedure.”
“Any claim that I performed any medical test or procedure for any purpose other than a therapeutic purpose, or for my own personal gratification, or to discourage C-sections, or to sexually assault a patient, is completely false,” Brock told The Times.
In a complaint filed with the state medical board, a patient wrote: “Dr. Brock commented on the size of my breasts, stating that my husband ‘must be enjoying them.’ This comment was made during an impromptu and forced breast exam.” (The Times is not naming the patient because the case involves allegations of sexual assault.)
Brock responded to the accusation, telling The Times that “I would never make a comment like that. I’ve done clinical breast exams on thousands of women, and I’m looking for medical issues.”
When the patient was admitted to Cedars-Sinai a week after her due date because of a lack of amniotic fluid, “Dr. Brock ordered the nursing staff to do everything possible to facilitate a natural delivery, which became torturous for me,” she wrote in her medical board complaint. “My husband and I requested from the Cedars staff a different OBGYN for the birth of our child, but no requests were heard.”
The patient wrote that she was diagnosed with an infection during labor and her fetus’ heart rate dropped significantly. Brock ultimately performed an emergency C-section about 20 hours after labor began.
The baby was blue and in poor condition, and required resuscitation, according to hospital records viewed by the Times.
The patient wrote that Brock’s first comment after the birth was not about the position of her baby, but about her vagina.
“After the surgery, Dr. Brock stated that I would be ‘nice and perky down there,’” she wrote in her complaint to the medical board.
Brock responded that without enough information from reviewing the patient’s medical record, “I can’t tell what happened here. If patients request a C-section, I don’t refuse and do what’s best for the patient and the baby. I’ve performed elective C-sections my entire career.”
As for the alleged comment, Brock said, “I would never use the word “tight” to describe a vaginal canal.”
Another patient who complained to Cedars-Sinai also reported her allegations to the Beverly Hills Police Department. Brock said the department had not contacted her until mid-September.
In the police report reviewed by the Times, the patient said she went to a gynecologist in 2020 to “flip” a breech baby. She said the doctor examined her breasts and vagina before performing an ultrasound and made comments about her body, such as noticing that she did not have stretch marks, the police report said.
According to the police report, the woman found his comments “unprofessional” and said it “made her feel uncomfortable,” and she said she felt the breast exam was unnecessary. It does not name the doctor, but the woman identified him as Brock.
The incident made her feel like she had been taken advantage of, the police report said.
Guidance from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says an ultrasound is necessary before beginning the procedure, but doesn’t mention any other physical exams. It’s not standard to do a breast exam for the procedure, experts said, although a breast exam may be done for other reasons, such as when beginning care for a new patient.
Brock said such exams were standard for his newly pregnant patients.
“Any patient who believes he or she can simply walk into a new OB-GYN’s office and expect the physician not to perform a physical exam … does not understand the process of becoming a new patient,” he wrote. “If the patient had a physical problem that was missed because I did not perform a physical or breast exam, I would be legally responsible for malpractice.”
Regarding his alleged comments, “I do not recall any precise instances of him inappropriately commenting on the lack of stretch marks,” she wrote. “However, there have been patients who did not have stretch marks during pregnancy and, when asked if it was possible to avoid stretch marks altogether, made comments such as ‘Lucky you.'”
A third former patient, who had not complained to Cedars-Sinai before the suspension, filed complaints against Brock with the medical board in April and with Beverly Hills police in July. The doctor’s name was redacted from a copy of the police report provided to the Times; the patient confirmed it was Brock.
During her second pregnancy in 2022, the woman said Brock made comments about her body so often that she requested the presence of a chaperone during appointments with him, according to the police report.
She told police and the medical board that after the birth of her second child, Brock spent an unusually long time stitching up what she described as a small lip tear.
The stitches remained tight and painful even several weeks after the birth, she wrote in the medical board complaint. When she explained the problem during a follow-up appointment, the woman wrote in the medical board complaint, Brock “told me ‘if I don’t like it (vaginal stitching) because I want to go back to porn, he can do a corrective procedure for me.'”
Brock denied making such comments, saying “I would never say or imply that a patient might ‘start looking at porn again.'” He also said he had never been told of a patient seeking a chaperone because of comments made on her body.
In her complaint, the patient wrote that she eventually left the practice and sought treatment from another doctor, who told her that Brock had sewn her labia minora together, leaving only a small hole for her vagina. Even after two years, activities such as using the bathroom, exercising and having sexual intercourse remain painful because of the injury, she wrote in the complaint.
In a written response provided through his attorney, Brock said that although he could not say for sure without identifying the patient and seeing his records, he suspected the problems the patient described were caused by his stitches.
Dr. Sharon Winner, a gynecologist who has referred patients to Brock, called him “one of the best obstetricians I’ve ever seen” and said that when it comes to health care, “you can’t take a single action or activity out of the medical context.”
His attorney also provided emails from his former patients praising his care.
“He has a very colourful personality, and can be downright offensive to those who don’t know or understand his sense of humour,” one wrote, but “when it comes to his skills, his attitude and his commitment to his patients, he is unmatched.”
