Lewis v. UPMC Bedford (Summary)

DISABILITY – DISCRIMINATION  

Lewis v. UPMC Bedford, Civil Action No. 3:2007-13 (W.D. Pa. Mar. 30, 2009)

The United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania denied a hospital’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by a locum tenens physician who alleged that his termination was based on his disability (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

The physician alleged a pattern of discrimination. He claimed that the Chair of the emergency department implemented a “shadowing program” after finding out about his ADHD, as a means of targeting the physician for scrutiny. In addition, the physician alleged that the Chair denied his request for a reasonable accommodation. Specifically, the physician asked to be permitted to see one patient at a time and to dictate his medical charts all at once after he finished seeing his patients. That request was denied, though, according to the physician, other emergency physicians were allowed to batch their charts. Most importantly, the Chair required that the physician undergo a neuropsychological evaluation. The physician complied and his neuropsychologist reported that he had no “cognitive deficits that would affect the physician’s ability to practice emergency room medicine.” After receiving the results of the evaluation, the department chair requested additional information (such as the entire file), but, citing confidentiality, the neuropsychologist would not release that information. As a result, the Chair met with the hospital’s human resources department and they terminated the physician.

Based on these allegations, the court held that the physician stated viable claims for violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Rehabilitation Act, and Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, rejecting the hospital’s arguments that those claims should fail because the physician was not an employee. The court dismissed the physician’s claim alleging that the hospital breached the Bylaws by failing to provide him with proper process for the termination of his appointment and privileges, noting that since this physician served as a locum tenens and did not join the medical staff, he was not entitled to the procedural protections of the Bylaws.