legal situation worth pursuing?

[bananas85]

I was hired by a hospitalist company to work at one of their contracted hospital. I had a lot of issues there and had to resign and pay some penalties for early termination of contract. Some of the major issues were

1. Very little orientation of the EMR and the hospital, which was not adequate for performing hospitalist tasks
2. EMR was down or functioning sub par for the first two weeks I was there
3. Placing cross cover responsibility on me for certain conditions without actually having the appropriate speciality coverage.

Anyways long story short I resigned as it was not a safe environment for me to work in. I had to pay a lot of termination fees, as well it has been a pretty stressful few months.

Would it be worth pursuing legal action so I can get my termination fee and the cost of moving bac? if so what kind type of a lawyer specialty do I seek out?

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[gutonc]

You violated your contract due to things that, whatever your analysis of the situation (and I'm not doubting your story), weren't part of your contract. So you have no legal leg to stand on WRT pursuing this.

Feel free to run it by a contract attorney but you could just send the $500 initial visit fee to me instead.

(IANAL which should be obvious, but will point out nonetheless)

 

[rokshana]

I was hired by a hospitalist company to work at one of their contracted hospital. I had a lot of issues there and had to resign and pay some penalties for early termination of contract. Some of the major issues were

1. Very little orientation of the EMR and the hospital, which was not adequate for performing hospitalist tasks
2. EMR was down or functioning sub par for the first two weeks I was there
3. Placing cross cover responsibility on me for certain conditions without actually having the appropriate speciality coverage.

Anyways long story short I resigned as it was not a safe environment for me to work in. I had to pay a lot of termination fees, as well it has been a pretty stressful few months.

Would it be worth pursuing legal action so I can get my termination fee and the cost of moving bac? if so what kind type of a lawyer specialty do I seek out?

those 3 things are pretty common...#3 especially so in smaller (and not so small) places...expect neuro, NS, and ortho pts to come onto your services and many places if its not an emergency, won't see them til the next morning...sometimes they give the ED guy recs sometimes not so much.

in my experience EMR orientation is overrated...you really don't figure it out until you actually use it...

and EMR down or wonky isn't really the hospitalist groups fault...and i would imagine others managed to work around it.

if those are big enough issues for you that you quit...then you may want to reconsider being a hospitalist and think more on the lines of outpt clinic...

 

[bananas85]

Thank You for the advice. Yes I don't mind spending 500$ , honestly besides the money its the principle of it.

You are right Rokshana, other hospitalist worked around it but there were few grave and multiple non serious medical errors that were noted while I was there.

You are also right about reevaluating my job as a hospitalist, and I will most likely be leaving the field, as THOSE are big enough issues for me.

I will take your advice as you guys are more experienced.

I just feel however that you cant expect a carpenter to do his work without giving him the tools, and that should apply to my job as well.

 

[gutonc]

I just feel however that you cant expect a carpenter to do his work without giving him the tools, and that should apply to my job as well.

They gave you the tools. You just wanted better ones. A nice Porter Cable chop saw instead of a rusty cross-cut saw, a Milwaukie 48V drill/driver instead of a broken handled phillips screwdriver. Nobody would blame you for wanting nicer tools. But you don't get to sue your boss for it because the tools, while crappy, are in fact capable of doing the job.

Thank You for the advice. Yes I don't mind spending 500$ , honestly besides the money its the principle of it.

Excellent, I'll PM you my address to send the cashier's check to.

 

[chessknt]

Beyond the fact that it will be exponentially more difficult for you to demonstrate that they breached your contract first, you will appear as entitled and litigious which may impair your future endeavors for employment. A successful suit isn't going to hurt or change them at all and is of minimal to no benefit to you--why proceed?

 

[repititionition]

You violated your contract due to things that, whatever your analysis of the situation (and I'm not doubting your story), weren't part of your contract. So you have no legal leg to stand on WRT pursuing this.

Feel free to run it by a contract attorney but you could just send the $500 initial visit fee to me instead.

(IANAL which should be obvious, but will point out nonetheless)

Preeeeeettttty sure that most people just use the acronym "INAL", for, well, obvious reasons, @gutonc.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Thank You for the advice. Yes I don't mind spending 500$ , honestly besides the money its the principle of it.

You are right Rokshana, other hospitalist worked around it but there were few grave and multiple non serious medical errors that were noted while I was there.

You are also right about reevaluating my job as a hospitalist, and I will most likely be leaving the field, as THOSE are big enough issues for me.

I will take your advice as you guys are more experienced.

I just feel however that you cant expect a carpenter to do his work without giving him the tools, and that should apply to my job as well.

So how much did you lose in the way of penalties?

Why risk coming out even further behind if a lawsuit doesn't pan out (which it sounds like it won't)?

This is one reason why I stayed way the hell away from becoming a hospitalist in the first place...

 

[gutonc]

Preeeeeettttty sure that most people just use the acronym "INAL", for, well, obvious reasons, @gutonc.

Actually, us old folks have used IANAL for ever. Get over it...and get off my damn lawn!

 

[repititionition]

Actually, us old folks have used IANAL for ever. Get over it...and get off my damn lawn!

In use forever, but not really popularized until the time of the greeks.

 

[bananas85]

Ok Point taken. It is only 10,000$ (not too bad but it is all relative).

More than the amount of money it was my hard earned money, and I feel like they treated me very unprofessionally, and unfairly. I had just got out of residency and did not really know my "rights" and still had a subservient mentality.

But I guess I can let it go.. Atleast I can try.

 

[Instatewaiter]

(IANAL which should be obvious, but will point out nonetheless)

iANAL that's the new butt plug from Apple right?

Actually, us old folks have used IANAL for ever. Get over it...and get off my damn lawn!

Oh...

 

[Instatewaiter]

Ok Point taken. It is only 10,000$ (not too bad but it is all relative).

More than the amount of money it was my hard earned money, and I feel like they treated me very unprofessionally, and unfairly. I had just got out of residency and did not really know my "rights" and still had a subservient mentality.

But I guess I can let it go.. Atleast I can try.

1) You violated the contract.
2) You may spend more than 10 grand litigating this if the lawyer takes the case. You may not be able to recoup the legal fees even if you win.
3) I think it is unlikely you will win
4) Will litigation change your prospects of future jobs?

 

[Lovetowork]

I had just got out of residency

This is the key quote. In the real non residency world you are not always going to have 24/7 sub specialty academic consultants at your beck and call. Sorry this post sounds like a whiny person. Every job isn't going to work out. Deal with it and suck it up and move on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Raryn]

I was hired by a hospitalist company to work at one of their contracted hospital. I had a lot of issues there and had to resign and pay some penalties for early termination of contract. Some of the major issues were

1. Very little orientation of the EMR and the hospital, which was not adequate for performing hospitalist tasks
2. EMR was down or functioning sub par for the first two weeks I was there
3. Placing cross cover responsibility on me for certain conditions without actually having the appropriate speciality coverage.

Anyways long story short I resigned as it was not a safe environment for me to work in. I had to pay a lot of termination fees, as well it has been a pretty stressful few months.

Would it be worth pursuing legal action so I can get my termination fee and the cost of moving bac? if so what kind type of a lawyer specialty do I seek out?

Yeah, pretty sure you have no leg to stand on. They hired you to do a job as a hospitalist, you did not feel like you wanted to practice in that environment, and you quit (thus breaking the contract). Unless you had written assurances from them that you would always have a functional EMR and would always have every subspecialist available, it seems like you were in the wrong, not them.

 

[rokshana]

Yeah, pretty sure you have no leg to stand on. They hired you to do a job as a hospitalist, you did not feel like you wanted to practice in that environment, and you quit (thus breaking the contract). Unless you had written assurances from them that you would always have a functional EMR and would always have every subspecialist available, it seems like you were in the wrong, not them.

heck even when they tell you that there is subspecialty back up that doesn't mean all day and night...just that there are sub specialist credentialed with the hospital...

 

[LoudBark]

I was hired by a hospitalist company to work at one of their contracted hospital. I had a lot of issues there and had to resign and pay some penalties for early termination of contract. Some of the major issues were

1. Very little orientation of the EMR and the hospital, which was not adequate for performing hospitalist tasks
2. EMR was down or functioning sub par for the first two weeks I was there
3. Placing cross cover responsibility on me for certain conditions without actually having the appropriate speciality coverage.

Anyways long story short I resigned as it was not a safe environment for me to work in. I had to pay a lot of termination fees, as well it has been a pretty stressful few months.

Would it be worth pursuing legal action so I can get my termination fee and the cost of moving bac? if so what kind type of a lawyer specialty do I seek out?

Any ethical lawyer would take one look at this and tell you to cut your losses and you don't have a case.

Of course there are a lot of slime ball lawyers out there for $250 an hour will tell you they will take on the case and review it and send the hospitalist company a bogus demand letter.......and nothing will come from it except you owing your lawyer now big time $$$$$$.

Good luck.

 

[michaelrack]

The time to have gotten a lawyer is before u left. the lawyer could have negotiated for no or a lower penalty (say 5k instead of 10 k) in return for non-disparagement, or perhaps giving more notice, staying a few weeks longer, etc. You may have been able to negotiate this yourself. You are out of luck now.

 

[bananas85]

Got it, will take the advice and leave it alone. lesson learned.