Physician recordsdata lawsuit claiming she was fired over grievance in opposition to Bangor hospital
The previous medical director of the Maine Board of Licensure in Medication has sued the company and its govt director in federal courtroom alleging he illegally fired her after Northern Mild Well being mentioned it didn’t need her concerned in any of its circumstances.
Dr. Brenda A. Gowesky, 68, of Alexandria, Virginia, and previously Camden, beforehand labored as an emergency room doctor at Northern Mild Jap Maine Medical Middle.
In Could 2017, she was fired after 10 years on the job, the grievance mentioned. The next January, Gowesky filed a declare with the Maine Human Rights Fee alleging that she was fired after reporting concern about affected person security within the emergency room of the Bangor hospital.
That declare was pending when she was employed by the board in October 2019. The matter was settled by way of mediation.
Gowesky allegedly obtained reward from the Maine Board of Licensure in Medication’s govt director, Dennis E. Smith, in November and December 2019. That modified in January 2020 when a consultant from Northern Mild Well being informed the board that it didn’t need Gowesky dealing with any circumstances involving the physicians employed at its 10 hospitals.
The letter despatched to the board from Northern Mild Well being mentioned that the group had “misplaced confidence in Dr. Gowesky’s capacity to be honest, goal and unbiased with regards to suppliers within the NLH system” due to the pending whistleblower grievance, the lawsuit mentioned. Smith allegedly objected to Northern Mild Well being’s demand however apparently acquiesced the next month.
That’s when Gowesky obtained her three-month job efficiency evaluate a month later than anticipated. The evaluate included detrimental feedback for the primary time and was meant to drive the physician to resign, the grievance alleged.
The lawsuit claims that Smith consulted with the board’s human assets director who suggested him to present Gowesky one other three months to work out any doable job efficiency issues. As a substitute, the physician was fired on March 5, 2020, and criticized for not being a crew participant, the grievance mentioned.
Gowesky’s legal professional, David Webbert of Topsham, mentioned that the physician’s lawsuit is an instance of how a lot affect a big well being care group like Northern Mild Well being can wield.
“It’s an enormous monopoly,” Webbers mentioned of the group. “It’s a troublesome scenario for any physician who will get on the fallacious aspect of Northern Mild.”
Gowesky, who has been the pinnacle of 5 emergency departments, started her medical profession in emergency drugs at Bellevue Hospital in New York Metropolis, in accordance with Webbert. She spent 10 years as a medical officer within the U.S. Air Pressure and served abroad in three conflicts, together with Operations Desert Protect and Desert Storm. She coordinated the triage processes at two of the bigger army hospitals transferring injured troops again to Germany from the battle zone within the Center East.
The physician was working on the Veterans Administration Hospital in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Webbert mentioned. Gowesky, her husband and two youngsters misplaced their household residence and all the things in it.
She went to work at Northern Mild Jap Maine Medical Middle in 2007, in accordance with her legal professional. When she was fired, Gowesky was coordinating staffing at 4 of Northern Mild Well being’s hospitals.
Gowesky is searching for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from the state.
The Maine legal professional normal’s workplace, which defends state businesses in litigation, declined to remark. It’s the apply of the legal professional normal to not touch upon pending circumstances.
In June 2016, Gowesky obtained a promotion with the extra tasks of overseeing collaboration between the EMMC emergency division and the emergency departments of 4 different hospitals within the Jap Maine Well being System (Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, Inland Hospital, Maine Coast Memorial Hospital, and Sebasticook Valley Well being), and overseeing the medical care and doctor staffing within the emergency departments of EMMC, Blue Hill and Inland. Gowesky was tasked with growing a brand new program referred to as the EMMC ED Collaborative Group, integrating the doctor staffing for all 4 hospitals.
The lawsuit was filed June 2 in U.S. District Court docket in Bangor.
