Sper v. Judson Care Center, Inc.

29 F. Supp. 3d 1102, 2014 WL 3108067, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92340
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedJuly 8, 2014
DocketCase No. 1:13-CV-251
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 29 F. Supp. 3d 1102 (Sper v. Judson Care Center, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sper v. Judson Care Center, Inc., 29 F. Supp. 3d 1102, 2014 WL 3108067, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92340 (S.D. Ohio 2014).

Opinion

ORDER

SANDRA S. BECKWITH, Senior District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Defendant Judson Care Center, Inc.’s motion for summary judgment (Doc. No. 24). For the reasons that follow, Defendant’s motion for summary judgment is well-taken and is GRANTED.

I. Background

Plaintiff Ardella Sper presents claims against her former employer, Defendant Judson Care Center, Inc. (“Judson”), alleging that Judson violated the Americans With Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the Ohio Civil Rights Act (“OCRA”) by terminating her employment because of her disability and by not providing a reasonable accommodation for her disability. Additionally, Plaintiff alleges that Judson interfered with her rights under the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) by not granting her leave to address a serious health condition.

Judson is a nursing and rehabilitation facility that provides long-term care to its patients. Plaintiff, a registered nurse, began working for Judson in October 2010 as a charge nurse. As a charge nurse, Plaintiff was responsible for the patients in her unit, as well as for supervising the State Trained Nursing Assistant’s (“STNA’s”). Plaintiff testified that her job duties consisted of giving patients their medications, performing treatments, keeping patients’ family members updated, communicating with doctors and coordinating patient care with other staff members. Plaint. Dep. (Doc. No. 15), at 43. Plaintiff was also required to keep accurate records on medications. Id. at 46. At the relevant time in this case, Plaintiff worked the 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 am. shift.

Plaintiff was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia (“TN”) in July 2010. Plaint. Dep. at 25, 193. TN is a condition that produces “[i]nflammation of the trigeminal nerve (the fifth cranial nerve) that most commonly causes paroxysms of very intense lightning pain in the areas of the face the nerve supplies — the lips, eye, nose, scalp, forehead, gums, cheek, and chin — on the involved side of the face.” See Definition of Trigeminal Neuralgia, available at http://www.medterms.com/ script/main/art.asp?articlekey=26023 (visited June 27, 2014). Plaintiffs diagnosing physician, Dr. Goldenberg, originally prescribed Tegretol twice a day to control her symptoms. Plaintiff testified that when she has a flare-up, she is limited in eating, talking, breathing from her mouth, and doing anything that takes concentration. Plaint. Dep. at 20. Plaintiff also testified, however, that these flare-ups last for only about 20 minutes, even without medication, and that TN only caused her to miss four or five days of work in the approximately [1106]*1106two years she was employed by Judson. Plaint. Dep. at 16-17, 20, 23-24. Plaintiffs deposition indicates that her TN is well-controlled on medication and that TN does not impose any significant restrictions on her ability to care for herself or her daughter or on her activities of daily living. Id. at 17-20. Plaintiff testified that she even discontinued using Tegretol in December 2010 and throughout 2011 after she used up her prescription but was no longer having any symptoms. Id. at 197-98.

In February 2012, suspicions that nurses were diverting drugs caused the Ohio Pharmacy Board and the Cincinnati Police Department to review Judson’s procedures for disbursing narcotics. Prior to the review, nurses had a practice of “late entering” the required information in the medications logs-they would administer the drug to the patient and complete the paperwork afterwards. After the review, however, Judson implemented a strict policy which required nurses to complete the Controlled Drug Log (“CDL”) when they removed a narcotic from the drug cart and then complete the Medication Administration Record (“MAR”) when the drug was given to the patient. Weber Aff. (Doc. No. 16-1) ¶¶ 4-7. Additionally, the outgoing and incoming charge nurses were required to audit the drug cart at the change of a shift to make sure that the count was correct. Plaint. Dep. at 51-52.

Plaintiff had several disciplinary warnings issued to her while she was employed b'y Judson. In August 2011, Plaintiff received a verbal warning for not removing two NTG patches from a patient. Doc. No. 15-1, at 50. In February 2012, Plaintiff received a verbal warning for not completing an in-house training program. Doc. No. 15-2, at 1. In June 2012, Plaintiff received a written warning for improper conduct. Doc. No. 15-2, at 2. Specifically, Plaintiff was cited for permitting aides to leave the assisted living ward for an extend period of time, which left the unit unattended, and for attending to personal matters during her shift. Doc. No. 15-2, at 2-3. In July 2012, Plaintiff received a final written warning for administering medication to a patient without a valid physician’s order to do so. Doc. No. 15-2, at 7. Plaintiff testified that she understood that after receiving this last warning, one more infraction would result in her termination. Plaint. Dep. at 88-89.

Plaintiff began treating with Dr. Thomas Myers in April or May 2012 for back pain and anxiety, and possibly for TN. Plaint. Dep. at 127-28. Dr. Myers originally prescribed Neurohtin for back pain and Ati-van for anxiety. Plaintiff was not sure whether Dr. Myers prescribed anything for TN at that time. Id. at 128-29. Dr. Myers changed Plaintiffs prescriptions on August 20, 2012. He discontinued Neu-r’ontin at Plaintiffs request and started her on Tramadol for back pain. Dr. Myers continued Ativan but started Plaintiff on Tegretol again. Id. at 129-30.

Most of what happened next is not disputed. During her shift on August 22-August 23, Plaintiff was impaired at work, although it is not clear whether she arrived at work impaired or became impaired later in her shift.1 In any event, at around 3 a.m., an aide in Plaintiffs unit reported to Nic Nzisabira, a charge nurse on another floor, that Plaintiff was acting strange and asked him to come over right away. Nzisabira Dep. (Doc. No. 19), at 35. Nzisabira found that Plaintiff was un[1107]*1107steady on her feet and kept asking for “Jim.” Contemporaneous incident reports describe Plaintiff as having slurred speech, being incoherent and disoriented, swaying and staggering, being unable to stay awake, and having her eyes roll back into her head. Doc. No. 20-1, at 23-31.

Plaintiff told Nzisabira that she was not feeling well and wanted to go home. Nzis-abira started to do a count of the medications in Plaintiff’s cart but she slumped over and hit her head on the cart. Id. at 35-36. Nzisabira called another nurse to complete a cart count and they soon discovered discrepancies. They first noticed that even though it was 3:00 a.m., Plaintiff had signed out some medications that were not supposed to be administered until 6:00 a.m. Additionally, they found one unaccounted-for pill each of Oxycodone, Hydro-codone, Tramadol, Clonazepam, and Morphine. Weber Dep. at 110-11, Weber Dep. Ex. 54. Plaintiff conceded in her deposition that she did not follow the established protocol for distributing these drugs and that she does not know whether she gave these drugs to the appropriate patient, whether she took them herself, or whether she misplaced them. Plaint. Dep. at 109-110,137-38,140.

Nzisabira called Bridgid Weber, the director of nursing, for instructions when they discovered the discrepancies in Plaintiffs cart. Nzisabira Dep. at 38-40.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
29 F. Supp. 3d 1102, 2014 WL 3108067, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92340, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sper-v-judson-care-center-inc-ohsd-2014.