Becker's Spine Review

46 HEALTHCARE NEWS Nurse awarded $28M in retaliation suit against Brigham and Women's Hospital By Ayla Ellison A jury awarded a Haitian-American nurse $28 million May 23 in a lawsuit against Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital alleging discrimination and retaliation, according to the The Boston Globe. Gessy Toussaint, RN, sued Brigham and Women's and three of its managers in 2014. Ms. Toussaint alleged she stuck up for another Hai- tian-American nurse who she believed was the victim of verbal abuse by a physician. Aer that, the hospital allegedly retaliated against Ms. Toussaint by investigating her for several instances of allegedly poor patient care. Ms. Toussaint further claimed she was subjected to dis- criminatory action by the hospital, according to the report. Ms. Toussaint resigned from Brigham and Women's in 2015 aer working there for 15 years. On May 23, aer more than three days of deliberation, a Suffolk Su- perior Court jury agreed the hospital and one of its managers were guilty of retaliation against Ms. Toussaint. However, the jury said Ms. Toussaint failed to prove race discrimination. e jury awarded Ms. Toussaint $28 million, the vast majority of which was for punitive damages. "is is a monumental verdict, and it really shows the jury was out- raged at the treatment of this lifelong nurse," Allison MacLellan, Ms. Toussaint's attorney, told e Boston Globe. It's "sending a message to the Brigham and other institutions that retaliating against someone for standing up for what's right won't be tolerated." Brigham and Women's and the manager plan to appeal. "While it is gratifying that the jury found no evidence of racial discrim- ination in this case, we strongly disagree with the finding of retaliation and intend to pursue all legal avenues to appeal this verdict," a Brigham and Women's spokesperson said in a statement to e Boston Globe. Ms. Toussaint and her Haitian-American colleague Nirva Berthold, MSN, RN, filed a joint lawsuit against the hospital, but Ms. Toussaint's claims went to trial first. Ms. Berthold still works as a care coordinator at Brigham and Women's. n Vanderbilt University Medical Center points to Epic rollout for 60% drop in operating income By Ayla Ellison N ashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center saw revenues increase in the first nine months of fiscal year 2018, but the hospital ended the period with lower operating income. Here are four things to know about the hospital's most re- cent financial results: 1. VUMC reported revenues of $3.04 billion in the nine months ended March 31, up from revenues of $2.85 bil- lion in the same period of the year prior, according to recently released bondholder documents. The hospital said the financial boost was primarily attributable to high- er net patient service revenue, which climbed 5 percent year over year. 2. The hospital's operating expenses increased 9 percent year over year to nearly $3 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. The hospital's expenses related to salaries, wages and benefits, as well as drug and supplies costs, increased year over year. 3. "The increase in salaries, wages and benefits is primarily due to increased staffing to meet additional demand as- sociated with higher net patient service revenue, research contracts, and training costs for staff related to our EMR system implementation," VUMC said. Higher consulting and management fees related to the Epic EMR implemen- tation also caused the hospital's expenses to rise. 4. VUMC ended the first nine months of fiscal year 2018 with operating income of $44.4 million, down 60 percent from $110 million in the same period a year earlier. The decline was largely attributable to higher expenses related to the rollout of the new EMR system. The hospital said it had planned for future operating income reductions due to the implementation. "We successfully completed our EMR implementation in November and we anticipate the new system will yield future efficiencies," VUMC said. "However, in the year of implementation, increased operating expenses related to implementation caused a reduction in operating income. The EMR implementation put pressure on clinical volumes in the post-live period. Although we have achieved net pa- tient services revenue in excess of our budget, the imple- mentation has muted volumes." n

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