Some healthcare workers in Santa Barbara, California, have thrown caution to the wind, ignoring both the privacy and dignity of their patients by turning them into the subject of crude online jokes. In a Reddit post, a screenshot captured a now-deleted six TikTok video showing eight healthcare workers. The first slide featured the caption, “Are patients allowed to leave you guys gifts?”
The following four slides showed some of the workers posing with an examination chair covered by a white cloth, alongside a disturbing stain that appeared to be a bodily fluid from the genital area. They added captions suggesting it was a “gift” from patients, laughing about how much they loved receiving it.
The slideshow ended with six of the workers posing again, some standing, one bending on the patient’s bed, and another with a foot resting on it, under a caption that read, “Make sure to leave your healthcare workers sweet gifts like these!”
The clinic was quickly identified as Sansum Clinic after local residents reported the video. The post was eventually traced back to an employee of the urgent care facility at 215 Pesetas Lane, Santa Barbara, now operating as “Sutter Health Pesetas Urgent Care under Sutter Health’s management.
In response to public outrage and ongoing investigations, the clinic released a statement to Edhat, emphasizing that “the trust and dignity of patients remain a top priority.” They confirmed that the original poster was a former employee and that a full investigation is underway regarding others involved, while assuring patients to remain calm.
Social media, however, was far from calm. Outraged users flooded the comments, condemning the behavior and questioning the clinic’s culture.
One person wrote,“ What’s crazy is that the company claims they’ve fired the person who posted it and put some on leave… but the number of people in the post looks like a whole clinic’s worth of staff. The culture must be rotten if most of them thought this was okay.”
Another added, “It’s the complete lack of empathy. They had good jobs and chose to do this. Groupthink and social media vanity are dangerous.” Others pointed out the shocking betrayal, “The fact that it’s women doing this to other women is abhorrent.”
One user, in disbelief, commented, “I’m shocked that multiple people thought this was not only acceptable but would actually be seen as funny PR. Their culture must be so toxic they’ve lost touch with reality.”
And another summed it up, “They got all these on-the-clock nurses together to take a picture around a stain on the exam chair? This is extremely weird and childish.”
Though the original post has since been deleted, the backlash lingers, both in the form of angry online reviews and the damaged trust of patients who expect care, not mockery, from their healthcare providers.
