Williams v. Whitley Mem'l Hosp.

1

TRACEY WILLIAMS, Plaintiff, v. WHITLEY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, INC. D/B/A PARKVIEW WARSAW MEDICAL COMPLEX, et al., Defendants.

No. 3:21-CV-892 JD

United States District Court, N.D. Indiana, South Bend Division

September 18, 2023

OPINION AND ORDER

JON E DEGUILIO, Judge.

The Defendants, Whitley Memorial Hospital, Inc. d/b/a Parkview Warsaw Medical Complex and Parkview Health Systems, Inc. (collectively “Parkview”), have moved for summary judgment on the Plaintiff, Tracey Williams', claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor ACT (EMTALA) and the Anti-Kickback Act (AKA). (DE 20.) Parkview has also moved to strike some of the evidence Ms. Williams has marshalled in her response to the motion. (DE 32.)

Ms Williams has brought three claims against Parkview under Title VII, a hostile work environment claim (Count I), a sex discrimination claim (Count II), and a retaliation claim (Count IV). Ms. Williams has also brought a claim for retaliation under the HIPAA, the EMTALA, and the AKA (Count III). For the following reasons, the Court grants the motion for Counts I, II, and III but denies the motion for Count IV.

A. Factual Background^[1]

Ms. Williams is a Registered Nurse who was employed by Parkview from June 2015 until her termination on November 19, 2019. (DE 20-2 at 11:20-21, 82:5-6.). Starting in July 2016, and until her termination, Ms. Williams served as the Nursing Manger of the Emergency Room Department at the Warsaw Medical Complex. (Id. at 12:13-16.) As the Department's Nurse Manager, Ms. Williams supervised a staff of around forty employees. (Id. at 13:25-14:2.)

On July 23, 2019, Nurse Kristin Sedlmeyer, a member of Ms. Williams' staff at Warsaw, approached Ms. Williams. (Id. at 17:10-18:4.) Nurse Sedlmeyer reported that a physician in the Emergency Department, Dr. Winther, had inappropriately touched her during an ultrasound by resting his hand on her clothed genitals, and made inappropriate remarks to her.^[2] (Id. at 17:1018:4, 26:7-18.) Dr. Winther worked at Parkview and was subject to their employee conduct regulations but was formally employed by Professional Emergency Physicians which provides physician staff to the emergency room and retained disciplinary authority over their doctors. (DE 20-3 ¶¶ 8-9.) Nurse Sedlmeyer conveyed she did not want to file a complaint with human resources about the incident but requested Ms. Williams speak to Dr. Winther and get him to cease his behavior. (DE 20-2 at 27:4-10.) At the time this incident occurred, Parkview had in place an Anti-Harassment and Complaint Procedure (“Anti-Harassment Policy”) which required supervisors to report possible harassment situations to human resources. (DE 20-6 at 8-9.) Ms. Williams knew of the Anti-Harassment Policy but prior to the incident with Nurse Sedlmeyer had never read it in detail. (DE 20-2 at 35:16-36:5, 145:2-9.)

Ms. Williams spoke privately with Dr. Winther about the allegations sometime later in July. (Id. at 27:16-19, 28:2-25.) Ms. Williams stated she confirmed the identity of the accuser during this meeting, Dr. Winther apologized to her and conveyed he wanted to apologize to Nurse Sedlmeyer as well. (Id. at 28:12-20, 29:14-23.) Following this meeting, Ms. Williams informed Nurse Sedlmeyer of the meeting, and met with Dr. Gutwein, the Medical Director of Parkview Warsaw. (Id. 29:25-30:9, 31:19-25.) Ms. Williams reported the details of the situation to Dr. Gutwein and during the meeting the two decided to report the incident to human resources. (Id. at 32:4-16.) On August 20, 2019, Ms. Williams met with Kim Harris of Parkview human resources to report the incident. (Id. at 34:3-11.)

Human resources launched an investigation into the allegation which interviewed fifteen Emergency Department staff, collected very little feedback about Dr. Winther, and found that the allegation against Dr. Winther could not be substantiated.^[3] (DE 27-7 at 32-33.) The investigation lasted from August 21, 2019, until September 5, 2019, and concluded with a recommendation that the Warsaw Emergency Department staff undergo harassment in the workplace training conducted by human resources. (Id. at 33.)

Ms. Williams testified at her deposition that she had experienced inappropriate touching and comments from Dr. Winther on three occasions. The first incident was one week before Nurse Sedlmeyer's complaint, Dr. Winther allegedly grabbed Ms. Williams' buttocks as she walked through a door ahead of him. (DE 20-2 at 19:21-20:15.) The second incident was in 2016, within a few months of her taking the Nurse Manager role at Parkview. Dr. Winther made inappropriate comments about Ms. Williams' attire when she stopped by the hospital for a social visit after using the gym. (Id. at 20:20-21:12.) In particular, Dr. Winther allegedly asked Ms. Williams if yoga pants were “going to be the new uniform.” (Id. at 21:1-8.) The third incident involved Dr. Winther's comment about a photo Ms. Winther kept in her office, in which she was wearing a bathing suit. (Id. at 139:14-140:4.) Ms. Williams had been instructed to remove the photograph by her supervisor on the basis it could be offensive to her staff. (Id.) Dr. Winther allegedly asked about the photograph while conducting rounds with Ms. Williams, and upon being told it was taken down, he allegedly stated “Well, give it to me. I'll hang it up in the doctor's lounge.” (Id. at 140:5-9.) The incident with the photograph occurred at some point before Dr. Winther allegedly grabbed Ms. Williams' buttocks. (Id. at 140: 10-12.) Ms. Williams testified that she did not report any of these incidents to her supervisors, or Parkview human resources. (Id. at 21:13-14, 21:21-22, 175:1-10.)

On August 4, 2019, the Parkview Emergency Department had an incident (“the EMTALA incident”) where a pregnant patient went into preterm labor and the Emergency Department staff could not provide adequate treatment which resulted in the prematurely born infant passing away. (Id. at 44:24-47:24.) Ms. Williams was not working on the day of this incident but learned of it afterward from coworkers. (Id. at 43:10-15.) The death of the infant led to an investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) for potential violation of EMTALA. (DE 20-7 ¶ 5.) The CMS investigation found an EMTALA violation occurred because the Emergency Department failed to provide for an appropriate transfer to another facility. (Id. ¶ 6.)

Ms. Williams testified that several times prior to the EMTALA incident she communicated to coworkers that the Emergency Department was not equipped to handle the delivery of an infant. (DE 20-2 at 50:22-51:19.) Ms. Williams never submitted any written complaints about her belief to her supervisors or Parkview leadership. (Id. at 53:19-20.) Ms. Williams indicates she does not believe she was terminated or placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (“PIP”) for reporting an EMTALA violation, but believes Parkview placed her on a PIP because it received an EMTALA violation from CMS. (Id. at 120:19-121:8., DE 26 Response ¶ 62 (Plaintiff's response to ¶ 62 on p.19-20).)

Ms. Williams also believes Parkview staff inappropriately disclosed HIPAA protected information to a third party when the mother and infant were transferred to Kosciusko Community Hospital. (DE 20-2 at 75:10-24.) Believing this was a HIPAA violation, Ms. Williams reported it to Scott Gabriel, the President of Parkview Whitley Hospital and Parkview Warsaw. (Id. at 76:11-20.)

Following the EMTALA incident Parkview implemented a remedial action plan (DE 207 ¶ 7.) Ms. Williams was assigned several responsibilities as part of implementing this plan. (DE 20-3 ¶ 21(d).) Ms. Williams, however, was not disciplined or penalized in any way as a result of the EMTALA incident and Parkview does not attribute any fault to her for causing or contributing to the EMTALA incident. (Id.)

Also following the EMTALA incident, Parkview conducted a Root Cause Analysis (“RCA”) which is a meeting of all responsible parties and leadership to review an incident, ensure all measures were properly taken, and determine whether there were any lessons to draw. (DE 20-2 at 48: 10-19.) The purpose of the RCA is to determine where improvements can be made in patient care and is not to assign blame or find fault. (Id. at 49:17-23.) Ms. Williams sought to attend the RCA for the EMTALA incident but was informed by Jeff Rockett, the Vice President of Outpatient Services^[4] at Parkview Warsaw, that he would not include her in the meeting. (Id. at 60:7-61:10.) Mr. Rockett communicated to Ms. Williams that she was not invited because Parkview leadership wanted to limit attendance to individuals who were part of the EMTALA event. (Id. at 65:3-14.) The final composition of the RCA was fourteen individuals, ten of whom were women, and included members of Ms. Williams' staff. (DE 20-7 ¶ 7, p. 4; DE 20-2 at 63:10 (Ms. Williams' testimony that her staff was not excluded), 64:2-8 (listing members of her staff who attended).) The individual tasked with leading the committee was also a woman. (DE 20-7 ¶ 14, p.4.)

Ms Williams testified that she believed she was excluded from the RCA on the basis of her sex. (DE 20-2 at 63:6-15.) Ms. Williams believes that Mr. Rockett's explanation for not inviting her to the RCA was insincere because individuals from the Parkview Regional Medical Center, who were not involved in the event, were invited to participate.^[5] (Id. at 65:16-24.) Parkview has also proffered the rationale that they excluded Ms. Williams from the RCA because of concerns she had coached, or would coach, her staff members on questions about any medical care the...