Hoffman, Lindsey v. HCA Health Services of Tennessee d/b/a Tristar Summit Medical Center

2025 TN WC 30
CourtTennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims
DecidedMay 21, 2025
Docket2024-60-0181
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 TN WC 30 (Hoffman, Lindsey v. HCA Health Services of Tennessee d/b/a Tristar Summit Medical Center) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoffman, Lindsey v. HCA Health Services of Tennessee d/b/a Tristar Summit Medical Center, 2025 TN WC 30 (Tenn. Super. Ct. 2025).

Opinion

FILED May 21, 2025 08:54 AM(CT) TENNESSEE COURT OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIMS

TENNESSEE BUREAU OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION IN THE COURT OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIMS AT NASHVILLE

Lindsey Hoffman, ) Docket No. 2024-60-0181 Employee, ) v. ) HCA Health Services of Tennessee ) d/b/a Tristar Summit Medical ) State File No. 960009-2024 Center, ) Employer, ) And ) Indemnity Insurance Co. of America, ) Judge Kenneth M. Switzer Carrier. )

EXPEDITED HEARING ORDER DENYING BENEFITS

This case presents a complicated issue: whether Lindsey Hoffman timely notified HCA Health Services of Tennessee of her PTSD and major depression that she alleged arose primarily out of her employment. After an expedited hearing on April 30, 2025, and giving the evidence thorough consideration, the Court finds that she did not give timely notice and holds she is not likely to prevail at a hearing on the merits that she is entitled to benefits.

Claim History

Employee’s direct testimony

Ms. Hoffman worked for HCA as an emergency medicine clinical pharmacist at Tristar Summit hospital. The job required her to respond to emergencies such as strokes or intubations; she “dosed and managed everything in the moment in life-or-death situations.”

She worked at Summit for over ten years. During that time, Ms. Hoffman believed she filed no workers’ compensation claims but acknowledged she was hit in the chest with a CPR stool in March 2023. She reported the injury in the hospital’s electronic system

1 described below as an “Employee Health” event. The injury did not result in her taking any leave. Rather, “it was evaluated and cleared.”’

Ms. Hoffman testified that several events in the emergency department led to her mental injuries.

First, Ms. Hoffman was sitting at her desk in a cubicle on April 9, 2023, with her back toward the behavioral health hallway, when suddenly one of the most dangerous patients approached her. He was under the influence of methamphetamine and came from behind her, yelling, “Where is she?” The patient was unsupervised, despite hospital rules that he be under one-to-one supervision by a sitter, and he was on “care alert,” the highest security level for patients. Ms. Hoffman said she felt “helpless” and “traumatized.”

Ms. Hoffman testified that she reported the incident to the nursing supervisor and her manager, Alex Stephens, that evening. She offered no details of those conversations.

She also reported the incident on April 10 in writing using Summit’s electronic “Vigilanz” system. The parties stipulated that this system allows hospital staff to report events occurring on the premises. Reportable events “include, but are not limited to, employee work-injuries, patient safety concerns, behavioral events, environmental events or concerns, near-miss incidents, and security events or concerns.” The parties further agreed that work injuries should be reported under the Vigilanz “Non-Patient/Employee Health” portal, but Ms. Hoffman instead created a “Security Event” in the system for the incident.

The next day, the same patient again escaped his room without supervision. The event “exacerbated” Ms. Hoffman’s fear from the previous evening. She testified that the events were “uncommon,” and they were “extraordinary and unusual” for a pharmacist.

Ms. Hoffman reported the incident through Vigilanz using “Patient Provision of Care.” She also told Mr. Stephens about “the situation with this patient” and that she felt unsafe at work and was “terrified.” Mr. Stephens responded that he would ask about erecting a barrier between her back and the behavioral health ward.

Per her usual schedule, Ms. Hoffman was off for the next seven days, when Mr. Stephens texted her on April 12 to tell her a work order had been entered for the barrier. On April 19, she spoke with him again and texted him a photo of another barrier in the hospital as an example. But on Ms. Hoffman’s return, no barrier was in place, and the dangerous patient had been relocated closer to her desk, in the room directly behind it, rather than moved farther away.

An additional injury-inducing event took place on April 23 and involved a patient arriving at the emergency department with a gun on his person. Ms. Hoffman and others

2 were attending to him, giving him CPR. She testified that she was focused on her crash- cart tray and the life-saving medications during the attempts to save the patient’s life. The EMS coordinator saw the gun on the patient and secured it while the CPR continued. She later learned that the gun had been “fumbled around” and pointed at her.

Ms. Hoffman reported this incident using Vigilanz the next day as a “close call/near miss.” She also discussed it with Mr. Stephens and Martin Bruck, the pharmacy director, during the shift, but she did not give details about these conversations. After this “extraordinary” event, she felt worse and that her “safety wasn’t a priority.”

After the April 9 incident, Ms. Hoffman found another area to work, which was not her designated desk. The temporary area was outside the emergency department, had a door, and her back was not turned to the behavioral health ward. She did this for several weeks until she was “kicked out.”

After the April 2023 events, Ms. Hoffman began experiencing flashbacks, panic attacks, hypervigilance, insomnia, and nightmares. She also started isolating and eating poorly, and she stopped working out. The events affected her ability to perform her job. The position required the ability to think on her feet, but since she was not sleeping or eating well, it became difficult for her to concentrate at work.

Ms. Hoffman said HCA never offered medical treatment, so she treated on her own starting in late June. Rebecca Hill, a nurse practitioner, diagnosed adjustment disorder. She did not introduce these records.

Ms. Hoffman worked during the summer months but also used paid time off. She continued asking both Mr. Stephens and Mr. Bruck about a barrier. Mr. Bruck told her in a work-messaging platform that he “found out about the situation and was escalating it to administration.” Ms. Hoffman could not recall when this conversation happened. She also expressed her concerns to the chief medical officer, who promised assistance. Neither Mr. Bruck nor the CMO delivered on their promises.

As for Mr. Stephens, Ms. Hoffman spoke with him frequently and was crying and “visibly distraught” during their conversations. During one discussion, he recommended she use the hospital’s employee assistance program, and she told him she was seeing someone. She also told Mr. Stephens that she missed being her old self; he responded that he did, too. Ms. Hoffman did not say when this conversation took place.

During this time, the only action the hospital took was to place bicycle mirrors near her desk and cubicle, which did not allay her fears.

Once Ms. Hoffman realized that no changes would be made, she decided to take medical leave on September 6. She was told to contact the corporate human resources

3 department, “HCA HR Answers.” Ms. Hoffman submitted a form signed in late September by Ms. Hill, who wrote that Ms. Hoffman suffered from “adjustment disorder-burn out, PTSD” and other conditions. The form also stated that she “feels unsafe at work due to recent guns in ER,” and that a barrier to return to work was “unsafe/secure work environment-lacking gun control and staff for aggravated ER patients.”

Ms. Hoffman eventually saw Dr. Robert Jamieson, who diagnosed PTSD and major depressive disorder in early October. Dr. Jamieson testified by declaration that “Ms. Hoffman’s PTSD primarily, meaning more than 50% arose from the traumatic events she experienced and witnessed while working at Tristar Summit Medical Center beginning on or around April 9, 2023.” Ms.

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2025 TN WC 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoffman-lindsey-v-hca-health-services-of-tennessee-dba-tristar-summit-tennworkcompcl-2025.