Patient Safety | 07.08.24
Fired MercyOne Nurse Who Clashed With Physician Claims Retaliation
by NAMSS Staff
Iowa Capital Dispatch (06/28/24) Kauffman, Clark
Kristin Flatness, a clinic nurse who claims she was marginalized and then fired by MercyOne Health Services in Iowa after fielding female employees’ complaints about a male physician, has filed a lawsuit against the company. Flatness alleges she was the victim of gender discrimination, disability discrimination, and retaliation while she worked for MercyOne as a clinic manager. Furthermore, she charges that her dismissal while on medical leave for a serious illness was in violation of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. Tensions ran so high with Dr. David Heine, the ill-tempered physician who had been the subject of so many complaints, that he allegedly pointed his finger in her face and shouted at her while positioned so Flatness was pinned between her desk and a wall. Flatness reported the incident to MercyOne's HR department, asking that a safety plan be put in place, only to have her job eliminated a week later. Two months later, the lawsuit alleges, MercyOne posted an opening for a job description nearly identical to that of Flatness' old position. Her lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for gender discrimination and disability discrimination in violation of the Iowa Civil Rights Act; violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Medical Leave Act; and retaliation related to her handling of complaints about Dr. Heine.
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