Last week, the Ohio Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a wrongful discharge claim brought by a terminated paramedic who alleged that he was fired for opposing the mistreatment of a patient in violation of Ohio public policy. Strodtbeck v. Lake Hosp. Sys., Inc., 2011-Ohio-2327. He questioned the medical treatment of a patient and took a picture of the alleged mistreatment with his cell phone camera and later showed the picture to the nurse manager and human resources while sharing his concerns. The employer chose to focus on his failure to obtain written consent from the patient before taking the picture instead of his complaint and terminated his employment. The Court found that the plaintiff had failed to identify any clear public policy, statute or other law which applied to his actions or which the hospital violated in terminating his employment. Thus, he had failed to satisfy the "clarity" element of a claim for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy.
In moving for summary judgment, the hospital had pointed out that the plaintiff did not have explicit permission from management to take the picture, failed to obtain written consent from the patient (as required by HIPAA practices), used his personal cell phone during working hours and failed to use the hospital's Polaroid camera in the ER to document his concerns. More importantly, the plaintiff failed to identify any specific public policy which the hospital violated in terminating his employment. Among other things, he failed to identify any required standard of medical care that would cover the amount of tape used to attach a catheter to a patient's leg or reporting possible patient abuse or maltreatment in a hospital setting.
The plaintiff argued that his situation was analogous to other situations where courts have found violations of public policy. However, the court refused to accept analogous situation as sufficient to satisfy the "clarity" element of a public policy wrongful discharge claim. Accordingly, the Court rejected the plaintiff's attempt to analogize his situation to one where an employee is fired for consulting with an attorney. Similarly, the court rejected the argument that his situation was analogous to firing an employee for cooperating with a criminal investigation of the employer because there was never any criminal investigation in this case and the plaintiff never alleged that the alleged mistreatment of the patient was criminal. Likewise, the plaintiff could not analogize to a situation where the employee was fired to testifying against the employer because there was never any legal or administrative proceeding in this case. Finally, the court refused to recognize an applicable public policy from the nursing home patient's bill of rights because the patient was in a hospital, not a nursing home, and there is a statutory remedy in nursing home abuse situations.
NOTICE: This summary is designed merely to inform and alert you of recent legal developments. It does not constitute legal advice and does not apply to any particular situation because different facts could lead to different results. Information here can change or be amended without notice. Readers should not act upon this information without legal advice. If you have any questions about anything you have read, you should consult with or retain an employment attorney.
