Crabtree v. Jefferson Cnty. Pub. Hosp. Dist. No. 2

500 P.3d 203

Jillian CRABTREE, Appellant,

v.JEFFERSON COUNTY PUBLIC HOSPITAL DISTRICT NO. 2 d/b/a Jefferson Healthcare, Respondent.

No. 54951-4-II

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 2.

Filed December 14, 2021

Cheryl L. Snow, Ronald Jaesung Park, Attorney at Law, 1109 1st Ave, Ste. 501, Seattle, WA, 98101-2988, William Siemon Cummings, Friedman Rubin, 1126 Highland Ave., Bremerton, WA, 98337-1828, for Appellant.

Jennifer M. Smitrovich, Fain Anderson Et Al., Joseph Vickers Gardner, Attorney at Law, 701 5th Ave. Ste. 4750, Seattle, WA, 98104-7089, Amanda Kathleen Thorsvig, Fain Anderson, Et Al., 1301 A. St. Ste. 900, Tacoma, WA, 98402-4299, for Respondent.

PUBLISHED OPINION

Worswick, J.

¶1 Jillian Crabtree appeals the trial court's order granting summary judgment dismissing her claims of sex discrimination against her employer, Jefferson Healthcare. Jefferson Healthcare fired Crabtree after she became pregnant. On appeal, Crabtree argues that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether (1) Jefferson Healthcare's stated reasons for her termination were a pretext for discrimination, and (2) Jefferson Healthcare was substantially motivated by Crabtree's pregnancy when it made the decision to discharge her.

¶2 Because issues of material fact exist regarding both these issues, we reverse the order granting summary judgment and remand for further proceedings.

FACTS

I. BACKGROUND ON CRABTREE'S POSITION

¶3 Crabtree started working at Jefferson Healthcare as the manager of patient access services in May 2018. Crabtree's direct supervisor was Jennifer Goodwin, who was in turn supervised by Hilary Whittington. Crabtree's job duties included overseeing three registration desks: one at the main entrance of the hospital, one at the emergency department, and another at the "walk-in" clinic. Crabtree supervised up to 20 employees at a time and managed those employees' hours, schedules, and personnel issues. Crabtree's position required her to have working knowledge of the electronic medical record (EMR) system and an understanding of the financial counselors' role in order to assist her team should an issue arise.

¶4 Every other week, Crabtree had regular one-on-one meetings with Goodwin and Allison Crispen, a human resources (HR) "business partner," who was assigned to assist Crabtree in all HR and policy matters. Crabtree described the purpose of those meetings as an open conversation and an opportunity to receive advice and input.

II. CRABTREE'S PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

¶5 About seven months after Crabtree started her position, she received her first performance evaluation on November 26, 2018. The evaluation included a self-assessment section, followed by the supervisor's assessment on a scale of 1-4, with 4 being the highest score.¹ The evaluation contained a total of 19 values, divided across four categories. The categories and values were as follows:

(1) "Organizational Values," included "Compassion, Respect, Teamwork, and Stewardship;"

(2) "Organizational Competencies," included "Professional Practices, Quality and Safety, Service, Effective Decision Making, Communication, Initiative, and Accountability;"

(3) "Position Standards" included "Overall Job Knowledge, Operations and Policy/Procedures, Productivity/Efficiency;" and,

(4) "Leadership Skills" included "Quality and Safety, People, Service, Community Health, and Sustainability."

CP at 580-83.

¶6 For category (1), Goodwin awarded Crabtree a "3," meaning that she met expectations for all the listed values. For category (2), Goodwin awarded Crabtree a "3" in all values, except for "effective decision making," to which she rated Crabtree a "2," meaning she needed improvement. Goodwin included written feedback for category (2). Her feedback stated:

As we've discussed in our vision for the front end, this is one of your priorities and areas where you and the team can gain energy around this forward direction. Creating an environment where our team has actively thought [through] what our patients' needs are, prior to them presenting on their date of service, is where our operational planning should be.

CP at 581. Under category (3), Goodwin rated Crabtree's performance as a "2," needing improvement, on two of three values: "overall job knowledge" and "productivity and efficiency." Goodwin included written feedback for category (2):

Patient Access scope is at the core of ensuring an accurate, efficient and streamlined revenue cycle stream. I encourage you to utilize both NAHAM information/ networking and HBI tools/best practice materials as great references for Patient Access knowledge and understanding.^{[2 ]}

CP at 582.

¶7 In category (4), "Leadership Skills," Goodwin rated Crabtree's performance as a "3," meeting expectations, in all values, except for a value labeled as "people," for which Goodwin awarded Crabtree a "2," needing improvement. "People" is defined as:

Actively works toward recruiting and retaining a high performing workforce; builds and maintains strong provider/dyad relationships. Achieves top quartile results in the employee engagement survey. Seeks out current and constructive feedback and able to respond/adapt to feedback given; holds self and peers accountable to the standards of the organization. Engages and develops team.

CP at 583. In the written feedback that followed, Goodwin expressed the following:

[I]t often becomes a balancing act of listening and being available and ensuring that [your team] understand[s] there is structure in place to share their feedback in a professional and respectful manner. I think they are on a learning curve, as you are, with building trust with a new leader and "feeling out" what you will allow with their conduct. I've seen you get stronger over the last month of backing up your responses with both HR assistance and policy and procedures to show the context of your direction. Keep up this rhythm and partnership with HR as you continue to set structure and expectations for the team ... The team will need to see that there is reasoning, structure and methodology behind the changes from their Leader.

CP at 584. At the end of the evaluation, Goodwin noted that Crabtree was doing "nice work," and that she was "impressed" with Crabtree's "professional self-reflection," which she noted was "admirable and a great leadership skill." CP at 586.

¶8 Goodwin also included a summary of areas where Crabtree could improve. The summary included: (1) improving Crabtree's understanding of registration and financial counseling and its impact on "overall revenue cycle steam," (2) exploring "what works for communication" with Crabtree's team, and (3) increasing visibility with the registration team and allowing for more in person discussions to "resolve issues in the moment." CP at 586. In total, Goodwin rated Crabtree as "meeting expectations" in 12 out of 16 categories.³

¶9 Following the evaluation, Whittington included a two-page letter to Crabtree, which was "highly unusual" for her to do. CP at 375. In the letter, Whittington told Crabtree that she had a "good first year" and that she had "done a nice job stepping into an entirely new career." CP at 588-89. She also offered additional feedback.

¶10 Regarding scheduling and staffing, Whittington was "excited" for Crabtree to "challenge" the status quo with scheduling and staffing. CP at 588. Whittington also asked whether there were other things Crabtree's team could do to help with staffing and scheduling as the traditional template was "not necessarily the best path." CP at 588.

¶11 Regarding financial counseling, Whittington expressed frustration that Crabtree had closed the financial counseling office during training. She said that she would like to treat such occurrences as "never" events. CP at 588.

¶12 Regarding "[d]oing work versus being a manager," Whittington advised Crabtree that she should work with Goodwin "to set the guardrails of how time is set to ensure [she] ha[s] enough time to both complete the ‘work’ and be around [her] team members." CP at 588. Because "[t]here are times when there are not enough hours in a work week," Whittington wrote that "these peaks may require creative scheduling or prioritizing." CP at 588.

¶13 Regarding information sharing, Whittington expressed that she would "love to see [Crabtree] focus on getting buy in from other leaders about why what the [registration] and [financial counseling] teams are doing is so awesome by spreading [Crabtree's] own (awesome) rumors." CP at 588.

¶14 Regarding decision-making, Whittington offered Crabtree an example of what she herself did during her first year working for Jefferson Healthcare. When struggling to make decisions, Whittington would "[fold] pieces of paper into two side-by-side halves and [write] ‘how could this be awesome?’ and ‘what could go wrong?’ on either sides, with the question [she] was considering in bold at the top." CP at 589.

¶15 Whittington also told Crabtree that she "can do a full SWOT analysis of the two main teams and figure out where [her] effort could drive the best results and improvements."⁴ CP 589.

III. CRABTREE ANNOUNCED HER PREGNANCY IN EARLY DECEMBER

¶16 Crabtree told Whittington that she was pregnant in December of 2018. Whittington responded by saying "Wow. Poor Jen. She's going to be without a whole staff this spring/summer."⁵ CP at 162. Whittington's remark referenced another manager on Goodwin's team, Sidonie Straughn-Morse, who was also pregnant. Goodwin supervised four managers, including Straughn-Morse and Crabtree. Because one manager position was vacant at the time, Goodwin would have been left with only one manager if Straughn-Morse and Crabtree had taken maternity leave at the same time.

¶17 That same week, Crabtree informed Goodwin of her pregnancy. Goodwin congratulated her and asked if she would be taking leave, and Crabtree said she would. Goodwin then followed up by asking if Crabtree planned on coming back after her leave, and Crabtree responded "yes." CP at 166....