De v. Catholic Healthcare West (Summary)

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION – RESIDENCY PROGRAM

De v. Catholic Healthcare West, B247458 (Cal. Ct. App. May 20, 2014)

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court’s decision granting a hospital’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by a resident with ADHD.  The third-year internal medicine resident signed a one-year employment agreement with the hospital. For the first nine months of the agreement, the resident’s performance was unsatisfactory in the areas of professionalism, patient care, medical knowledge, communication, and interpersonal skills.  The hospital decided to terminate her from the program, and she appealed. At her appeals hearing, the resident brought to the hospital’s attention, for the first time, that she has ADHD. The hospital allowed the resident to return to work with a highly supervised, reduced workload. The resident did not show any signs of improvement, so the hospital allowed her employment agreement to expire. The resident asked for an extension of time to finish her residency, but the hospital declined. The resident then filed this action alleging, under California law, she was discriminated against due to her disability and that the hospital failed to engage in the interactive process to make and provide reasonable accommodations.

The court held that the resident could not perform the essential duties of the job, even with or without a reasonable accommodation; therefore she was not qualified for the position or protection under the antidiscrimination statute. Furthermore, she could not perform those duties in a manner that would not endanger the health or safety of others even with reasonable accommodations. The hospital also demonstrated that it engaged in a good faith interactive process to determine effective accommodations, once they were requested. Lastly, the court held the resident’s request for an extension of her residency was unreasonable, because there was no indication that she ever would have been competent to treat patients in the ICU or complete the other remaining required rotations without putting patients at risk.