Honestly, I dont disagree with anything you have said either. But here is the issue — and I have been called out for saying this about the George Floyd incident. The optics of this are indefensible. While trivial, and likely little harm came to bear, the fact of the matter is that this is the CEO and he did something that he would raise holy hell about if someone else did it in his hospital who was unlicensed. The fact that he is a CEO for 30 years does not mean the rules are different for him. Did he need to get the professional death penalty? Probably not — did he need to apologize profusely and fix it — absolutely. The problem is that the higher you are in an organization, the greater the penalty for even forgivable f*ck ups.
He lost his moral authority to lead with this incalculably stupid error.
It will be more than a little harm.
This will have to be reported to the Joint Commision, State Board of Physicians, malpractice insurance carriers - the patient will be offered a settlement. The legal costs, staff costs, etc to deal with all the inspections,
corrective action plans, chart reviews, policy and procedure reviews and rewrites - they will also write off the patients bill. The surgeon will be reported and maybe lose his privileges as well.
If they get out of this for less than a $1million they are lucky.