The Washington state Health Department is scrambling to recover from a disclosure that it’s been neglectful about protecting the public from unscrupulous health care providers.

From now on, says Director Mary Selecky, her agency will investigate all complaints of sexual misconduct by people who hold licenses it oversees, not just the two out of three that has been the practice. That’s good, but it’s a little late for victims of the practitioners who could have been removed from the system with more attentive screening.

The department’s regulatory lethargy was disclosed recently in the Seattle Times. Out of 1,494 sexual-misconduct complaints received in the past decade, the newspaper reported, the department let 461 of them go uninvestigated.

A Spokane woman, Elizabeth Hendershott, knows the grief that arises from such a cavalier approach.

Raymond C. Hughes was a registered nurse who was supposed to help provide the round-the-clock care needed by Hendershott’s 12-year-old daughter Sara, who has cerebral palsy. Hughes now is serving a prison term for raping Sara.

(Editor’s note: The Spokesman-Review normally does not identify rape victims. In this case, both mother and daughter were photographed and identified as part of the Seattle Times report, which is widely available in Spokane.)

No one told Hendershott back then that Hughes had been the subject of at least four previous misconduct complaints. Three went uninvestigated. The pattern never moved state regulators to deal with Hughes, and his record wasn’t shared with Hendershott as she entrusted her dependent daughter to Hughes’ care.

Selecky called the revelation “disconcerting” and pledged a more aggressive response to complaints.

Better late than never, which could be the state motto. Last year when Gov. Chris Gregoire ordered a 24-hour response time to child-abuse complaints, it came after several innocent lives were lost, including that of Tyler DeLeon. Tyler, a Stevens County boy, died on his 7th birthday, nine days after school officials had notified the state Department of Social and Health Services that they were concerned for his safety – and the day before the department’s 10-day follow-up period would have expired. A 10-day response, DSHS policy at the time, was unacceptable, Gregoire said, although too late to help Tyler.

Like DSHS and the Department of Health, too many agencies employ lax oversight practices until tragedy and publicity force them to react.

Past reporting projects by the Seattle Times and The Spokesman-Review have detailed the way schools in Washington dealt with improper sexual contact between teachers and students. Offenders commonly were allowed to resign quietly without forfeiting the certificates they could then use to get new jobs in different districts. Some Roman Catholic dioceses, including Spokane’s, are now known to have dealt similarly with priests who abused children. The image of the institution came before the welfare of the victims.

It’s the duty of institutional leaders at all levels of community life to make public protection the top priority – before catastrophe happens. Too many have failed to take their responsibilities seriously until the embarrassment of exposure jolts them to awareness.

The Washington state Department of Health is just the latest. Who will be next?