Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has banned a Beverly Hills obstetrician-gynecologist from practicing at its facility after an investigation into “concerning patient complaints,” according to a spokesperson.
Dr. Barry Brock, a longtime physician who has publicized his low cesarean delivery rate, has lost his hospital privileges and the matter has been reported to the Medical Board of California, according to Cedars-Sinai.
“The type of behavior reported against Dr. Brock is contrary to Cedars-Sinai’s core values and the trust we strive to earn every day with our patients,” his spokesman said.
Brock, 74, has denied any wrongdoing and said he had waived his privileges without any “factual investigation” or “hearing on the merits” of the allegations. Cedars-Sinai did not immediately respond to those claims.
In August, weeks after his privileges at Cedars-Sinai were suspended pending an investigation, Brock emailed current and former patients to announce that he was retiring from medicine at the end of the month, saying the “uncertainty of how long this process will take” left him unable to provide the care his patients would expect.
Neither Cedars-Sinai nor the medical board would discuss details of the allegations, saying they were confidential under law.
Nine former patients spoke to The Times about alleged experiences with Brock, and two 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, a botched medical procedure and pressure on a patient to undergo a vaginal birth 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, saying “those few anonymous allegations” were not indicative of his abilities or “my character, which I have demonstrated day in and day out in my practice and in the delivery room for 46 years.”
He said Cedars-Sinai had only provided a summary of the complaints and that it was “not a fair process” to be asked to defend itself without being able to identify the patients involved.
“Any claim that I performed a medical examination or procedure for a purpose other than medical or that I performed it in a manner that was for my own personal gratification, to discourage Caesarean sections or to sexually harass a patient is an outrageously false claim,” Brock told The Times.
Brock left Cedars-Sinai's physician network in 2018, the hospital spokesperson said, but retained birthing privileges at the medical center. She first worked in private practice at Rodeo Drive Women's Health Center in Beverly Hills and then moved to another private practice in Beverly Hills in January 2021.
In a complaint filed with the state medical board, one patient wrote: “Dr. Brock commented on the size of my breasts, proclaiming 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, as the case involves an allegation of sexual assault.)
Brock, in response to the allegation, told the Times that “that is not the kind of comment I would ever make. I have performed clinical breast exams on thousands of women and I am looking for medical problems.”
When the patient was admitted to Cedars-Sinai a week after her due date due to a lack of amniotic fluid, “Dr. Brock ordered the nursing staff to do everything possible to facilitate a natural birth, which became torture for me,” she wrote in her complaint to the medical board. “My and my husband’s requests to the Cedars hospital staff to have a different OB-GYN deliver our baby fell on deaf ears.”
The patient wrote that she had been diagnosed with an infection during labor and that the fetal heart rate plummeted. Brock ultimately performed an emergency C-section about 20 hours after labor began.
The baby was born blue and unresponsive, according to hospital records reviewed by The Times, and required resuscitation.
The patient wrote that the first comments Brock made to her after birth were not about the condition of her baby, but about her vagina.
“After surgery, Dr. Brock stated that my penis would be ‘really tight down there,’” he wrote in his complaint to the medical board.
Brock responded that without enough information to review the patient's medical records, “I can't say what happened here. If patients request a C-section, I don't deny it and I do what's best for the patient and the baby. I've performed elective C-sections throughout my career.”
As for the alleged comment, “I never use the words 'tight' to describe the vaginal canal,” Brock said.
Another patient who complained at Cedars-Sinai also reported her allegations to the Beverly Hills Police Department. As of mid-September, Brock said he had not been contacted by the department.
In a police report obtained by The Times, the patient described going to a gynecologist in 2020 to have a breech baby turned. She said the doctor performed breast and vaginal exams before giving her an ultrasound and made comments about her body, including saying she had no stretch marks, according to the police report.
The woman called his comments “unprofessional” and said they “made her feel uncomfortable,” and said she felt the breast exam was unnecessary, according to the police report. The doctor’s name is not listed, but the woman identified him as Brock.
The episode “made her feel as if she had been taken advantage of,” the police report states.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' guidelines say an ultrasound should be performed before attempting the procedure, but they don't mention any other physical exams. Experts said a breast exam is not standard practice for the procedure, though it may be done for other reasons, such as starting care for a new patient.
Brock said these tests were standard for his new pregnant patients.
“Any patient who believed they could simply show up at a new OB/GYN office and expect the doctor not to perform a physical exam … did not understand the process of becoming a new patient,” she wrote. “If the patient had a physical problem that was not detected because I did not perform a physical or breast exam, I would have been legally liable for malpractice.”
As for her alleged comments, “I don’t recall any exact instance where I have inappropriately commented 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 them altogether, I made comments like ‘you’re lucky.’”
A third former patient, who did not complain to Cedars-Sinai before the suspension, filed a complaint against Brock with the medical board in April and with Beverly Hills police in July. The doctor’s name was redacted from the copy of the police report provided to The Times; the patient confirmed that it was Brock.
During her second pregnancy in 2022, the woman said Brock made comments about her body so frequently that she requested a chaperone be present during her visits with him, according to the police report.
After giving birth to her second child, Brock spent an unusually long time stitching up what she said was a small labial tear, she told police and the medical board.
The sutures remained tight and painful for weeks after delivery, she wrote in the complaint to the medical board. When she described the problem during a follow-up appointment, the woman wrote in the complaint to the medical board that Brock “told me 'if I didn't like the way it looked,' [the stitching of my vagina]“Because I wanted to get back into porn, he could do a corrective procedure on me.”
Brock denied making such comments and said he would “never say or imply that a patient might ‘revert to porn.'” He also said he had never been informed of a patient asking for an escort because of comments about their body.
In her complaint, the patient wrote that she eventually left the office and sought care from another doctor who told her that Brock had sewn her labia minora shut, leaving only a small opening for her vagina. Two years later, activities such as going to the bathroom, exercising and having sex remain painful as a result of the injury, she wrote in the complaint.
In a written response provided by his attorney, Brock said that while he could not speak with certainty without being able to identify the patient and consult her records, he doubted the problems she described were caused by the suturing.
Dr. Sharon Winer, 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 medical care, “you can’t take a single act or activity and take it out of the medical context.”
His lawyer also provided emails from former patients praising his care.
“He has an absolutely colorful personality and can be blunt to the point of offending… those who don't know or understand his sense of humor,” one wrote, but “when it comes to his skill, his bedside manner, and his commitment to his patients, HE HAS NO EQUAL.”
