Several health care workers at a Southern California medical clinic have been terminated after the release of a TikTok video where they mocked their patients’ bodily fluids.
Various employees at Pesetas Urgent Care in Santa Barbara appeared in the video that gained interest over the weekend, where they posed next to what looked like bodily fluid stains on an exam room table.
The video featured captions like, “Are patients allowed to leave you guys gifts?” and “Guess the substance,” the Santa Maria Times reported.
The video went viral, and the negative reaction was just as swift, as many people felt it was “dehumanizing” and violated patient privacy.
Although the original was deleted, clips survived via other users who reposted it in various forms across TikTok and other platforms, according to KSBY TV.
According to the Santa Barbara Independent, the original video was posted on TikTok by @angieuncut, who the publication identified as a health care worker named Angie.
Since the video was first posted, the account has been locked and replaced with a new username, with all videos deleted.
The existence of the video made some clients of Sutter Health, the company that runs the clinic, very concerned.
“I had a doctor’s appointment today, and even though I trust who I was seeing, it was in the back of my mind what Sutter Health had done,” Joey Boreta wrote on Yelp, the station reported.
Sutter Health said that as of Wednesday, all employees who knowingly participated in the video have been fired. The company confirmed to KSBY that the person who posted the video left the job back in July but did not comment on any possible motivation behind the post.
In a statement posted on its website, Sutter Health called the behavior on the video “unacceptable” and an “outright violation” of company policies.
“Within 24 hours of becoming aware of the posts, we placed the employees on administrative leave, and within another 24 hours, we terminated those involved as part of this ongoing investigation,” the statement read.