On July 11, 2023, The Law Office of David H. Rosenberg, P.C. (“Firm”) filed a verified complaint of whistle-blower retaliation with The Supreme Court of The State of New York, County of Suffolk on behalf of the Firm’s client (“Plaintiff”), against Northwell Health (“Northwell”).
According to the Verified Complaint, Plaintiff, because of hard work and dedication to the job, received yearly salary increases, bonuses, and awards. Plaintiff was promoted to director of pharmacy at Northwell’s Peconic Bay Medical Center.
According to the Verified Complaint, on or about November 15, 2022, senior manager of pharmacy Dr. Brenden VanSlyke (“Dr.VanSlyke”) emailed director of patient care Daria Frontera (“Frontera”), vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer Christine Kippley (“Kippley”), and Plaintiff, words to the effect of:
I reviewed Lindsey Spatola’s control substance activity for October. Lindsey is missing medication administration documentation of doses of clonazepam that she removed from Pyxis. Please review these with her and see if she recalls what happened.
Plaintiff received notice of additional discrepancies of missing medication administration documentation by Lindsey Spatola (“Spatola”) for the following month. Plaintiff believed that Spatola had illegally taken clonazepam, a benzodiazepine prescription drug classified by the DEA as a Schedule IV controlled substance from Northwell.
On or about December 16, 2022, Kippley told Plaintiff generally, “Lindsey Spatola was spoken to about her poor documentation only, that’s it. I feel that is not a case of diversion but of poor documentation.”
Plaintiff believed that Kippley was trying to cover up Spatola’s theft of clonazepam from Northwell in violation of law, rule, or regulation.
On or about December 19, 2022, Kippley said to Plaintiff, “I spoke with Maureen White and she wants this to be documented as poor documentation by Lindsey Spatola, not diversion.”
Plaintiff believed this was an attempt to cover up Spatola’s theft of clonazepam from Northwell.
On or about December 19, 2022, Plaintiff complained to a supervisor, chief pharmacy officer Lisa Mulloy (“Mulloy”), with words to the effect of:
I just had a conversation with Christine Kippley regarding a proactive diversion investigation into missing doses of clonazepam. A nurse, Lindsey Spatola, removed clonazepam doses from Pyxis on several occasions and never documented the doses as being administered to the patient. There are several incidences discovered initially in October’s Proactive Diversion Review and many more doses discovered in November’s Proactive Diversion Review. Some of the doses were removed minutes apart for the same patient but not all the doses were documented as administered. These incidents were reviewed with Christine Kippley and Daria Frontera. They believe this is just poor medication administration documentation.
According to the Verified Complaint, the supervisor, along with a Northwell investigatory committee agreed with Plaintiff that this was a case of diversion rather than poor documentation. Spatola was terminated on or about January 4, 2023.
In retaliation for Plaintiff’s whistle-blowing in the Spatola matter, on or about February 6, 2023, Kippley issued Plaintiff a performance improvement plan (“PIP”) with false allegations of wrongdoing.
After refusing a request to resign, Plaintiff was terminated on March 9, 2023, by Kippley. This termination was also retaliatory by Northwell Health against the Plaintiff for whistle-blowing.
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