Uche v. St. Lukes-St. Vincent’s Healthcare, Inc. (Summary)

DISCRIMINATION

Uche v. St. Lukes-St. Vincent’s Healthcare, Inc., No. 3:12-cv-865-J-32JBT (M.D. Fla. Feb. 5, 2015)

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida dismissed a hospitalist’s racial discrimination and retaliation claims against a hospital, holding that the hospitalist failed to provide any evidence that he was treated differently from another similarly situated individual. The hospitalist lost his clinical privileges at the hospital, after numerous complaints from nurses, patients, and hospital administration. The hospitalist continually failed to respond to nurses’ calls regarding care for his patients, write acceptable discharge orders, timely authenticate history and physical forms, and effectively communicate with patients. The hospital warned the hospitalist by summarily suspending him, but after his return, 60 new complaints were asserted against him in four and a half months, forcing the hospital to revoke his clinical privileges. The hospitalist alleged that the hospital discriminated against him based on his race and retaliated against him due to his complaints of racial discrimination.

The court held that there was no evidence that the hospitalist was treated any differently than a similarly situated individual. The court explained that there are no other similarly situated hospitalists to compare the plaintiff-hospitalist to due to the number of complaints, 358, against him. The closest individual only had 155. Furthermore, the court stated that the hospital had a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for the revocation of his privileges, his continued failure to correct his behavior. Additionally, the hospitalist’s retaliation claim failed because there was no connection between the alleged racial discrimination complaints and the hospital’s final decision. The hospitalist asserted that the timing of both showed a causal relationship between the two, but the court noted that there was a six-month gap between the complaint and final decision, a period too long to establish relatedness.