WASHINGTON — An unbiased report commissioned by the Indian Well being Service discovered that officers on the federal company silenced and punished whistle-blowers in an effort to guard a health care provider who sexually abused boys on a number of Native American reservations for many years.

On the similar time, the report, written early final 12 months however stored personal till now, discovered that members of I.H.S. administration “willfully ignored or actively suppressed any efforts to handle the hazards themselves.”

The 161-page report by Integritas Inventive Options, a consulting firm, was obtained by means of a Freedom of Data Act lawsuit introduced towards the I.H.S. by The New York Instances and later joined by The Wall Road Journal. It concludes that I.H.S. leaders went out of their strategy to ignore the allegations towards Stanley Patrick Weber, the previous doctor, as a result of addressing them could be “awkward, arduous, inconvenient, messy and embarrassing.”

The report’s launch comes after a federal appeals courtroom dominated final week that the I.H.S. needed to launch the unbiased evaluation on how Mr. Weber, who labored as a pediatrician for the company, sexually preyed on Native American boys for many years. The choice affirmed a lower-court ruling in The Instances’s lawsuit in search of to have the report launched to the general public.

Mr. Weber is at present serving a number of life sentences after federal investigations in each South Dakota and Montana. He was convicted in September 2019 of committing intercourse crimes towards boys as younger as 9 between 1994 and 2011 at his residence in Pine Ridge, S.D., and in 2018, Mr. Weber was convicted of abusing younger boys in Montana.

The report recommends that the I.H.S. put in place whistle-blower safety coordinators at its 12 regional space workplaces and presumably at its 170 native administrative workplaces. It additionally requires the company to increase its abuse insurance policies to handle victims of all ages, not solely those that are kids, and to create an inner system that may observe allegations of wrongdoing in addition to all data realized throughout abuse investigations.

Jennifer Buschick, a spokeswoman for the I.H.S., stated in a press release that the report reveals that previous insurance policies and procedures for dealing with sexual abuse allegations made by sufferers led to many years of failures.

“The I.H.S. acknowledges the trauma suffered by the victims of sexual abuse inside our company is unacceptable,” the assertion says. “These actions are reprehensible, and we sincerely remorse the hurt triggered to these concerned. We’ll do all we will to enhance and maintain the tradition of care all through the I.H.S. The company is dedicated to working with tribal and concrete Indian group leaders throughout the nation to make sure we will shield the well being and well-being of each baby.”

Ms. Buschick stated the company had began to make adjustments. This consists of the creation of a 24-hour hotline to report baby or sexual abuse, coaching for all I.H.S. staff and contractors in dealing with stories of suspected baby or sexual abuse, and putting in stronger affected person security protocols.

Based mostly in Rockville, Md., the I.H.S. was created to hold out the federal government’s treaty obligation to supply well being care providers to eligible American Indians and Alaska Natives. The tribes agreed to trade land and pure assets for well being care and different providers from the federal authorities. However the company has lengthy been suffering from inadequate funding and shortages of provides, an absence of docs and nurses, too few hospital beds, growing old amenities, and mismanagement.

The blistering report included criticisms that severe allegations had been badly documented and that information had been poorly preserved by I.H.S. officers. The report additionally discovered that there have been by no means any credible makes an attempt by I.H.S. managers to research complaints introduced by whistle-blowers.

The report states that administration at I.H.S. amenities in Browning and Billings, Mont., and Pine Ridge and Aberdeen, S.D., had entry to loads of proof, “some offered to them and a few discoverable with probably the most modest quantity of honest inquiry,” to justify eradicating Mr. Weber.

“In a really actual sense, each sufferer of Weber’s abuse at Pine Ridge was additionally a sufferer of the failures of I.H.S. administration,” the report says.

The Blackfeet Nation in Montana was one of many tribal communities affected by Mr. Weber’s abuse. Chairman Timothy Davis stated that in mild of the report, the neighborhood is demanding an apology from the I.H.S. and extra accountability for individuals who coated up the abuse.

“To permit this pediatrician to do that to our kids for all these years is unforgivable and atrocious,” Mr. Davis stated. “This man was allowed to run rampant towards our kids for all these years, and was it was coated up by the administration of the Indian Well being Service. They need to be held accountable for his or her grave misconduct.”

The company awarded a $618,000 contract to Integritas Inventive Options in Could 2019 to research its dealing with of sexual abuse claims towards Mr. Weber. It did so after a Wall Road Journal article detailed Mr. Weber’s crimes and the company’s failure to cease them.

The I.H.S., which has 15,170 staff, most of whom work in its hospitals and clinics, has lacked constant management for the reason that Obama administration. Rear Adm. Michael D. Weahkee, a member of the Zuni Tribe, served on an interim foundation from 2017 till he was confirmed by the Senate in April 2020.

He resigned at the beginning of the Biden administration. Elizabeth A. Fowler, a member of the Comanche Nation who’s descended from the Japanese Band of Cherokee Indians, now serves because the company’s performing director.