A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has found that a retaliation lawsuit can proceed against a health care organization that allegedly fired a doctor for engaging in protected whistleblowing activity and not for interpersonal issues, as the employer claimed.
Defendant Atrius Health terminated plaintiff Diana Rodriguez after she failed to undergo assessment and potential counseling by Physician Health Services to address alleged interpersonal issues in the workplace, after the employer directed her to do so. Physician Health is a subsidiary of the Massachusetts Medical Society that provides support to doctors struggling with mental health and behavioral challenges.
Rodriguez brought a retaliation complaint under the state Healthcare Whistleblower Act alleging that she was really fired for raising concerns about Atrius’ billing practices and the clinical competence of a colleague.
argued that Rodriguez could not rebut its non-retaliatory reasons for her termination and thus her claim failed as a matter of law.
But in denying Atrius’ motion for summary judgment, Judge Michael D. Ricciuti pointed to an online “collegiality survey” that Atrius had Rodriguez’s co-workers complete after she first expressed her concerns. He noted that the company had no regular practice of conducting such a survey and that some of Rodriguez’s co-workers reported feeling pressured to give negative feedback about Rodriguez.
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