A jury has awarded John Farmer, MD, a former employee of Baptist Health Madisonville (Ky.), $3.7 million after finding that the hospital violated terms of his contract and interfered with his future business relationships, according to The Indiana Lawyer.
Dr. Farmer was a third-year family medicine resident at Baptist when the mother of a patient accused him of being "impaired" and "touching his nose a lot," according to court documents.
After the complaint was filed, Diana Nims, MD, director of the residency program, consulted with two supervising physicians who worked with Dr. Farmer that afternoon. One of those physicians participated in the patient visit, and both denied that he was impaired by alcohol or drugs.
In such cases, according to Baptist Health's policies, the accused physician should be spoken to and assessed for possible impairment. Then, if there is a reasonable suspicion of impairment, the accused physician should be immediately tested for drugs and alcohol.
However, the complaint alleges Dr. Farmer was not told about the allegations until the next morning, when leadership already agreed to require him to go for evaluation and possible treatment, according to the report. Dr. Farmer was placed on a leave of absence, pending an evaluation.
In November 2019, he signed an order that prohibited him from practicing medicine until the Kentucky Physicians Health Foundation approved him to do so. He was evaluated in December and signed a contract that included a two-year agreement to abstain from drugs and alcohol in addition to regular testing, monitoring and therapy.
The health foundation then extended that to five years and made compliance a condition of retaining his medical license, according to the report. Dr. Farmer completed his residency in September 2020 and sued Baptist in January for alleged breach of contract and interference with business activities, arguing that the contract and order would deter potential employers.
The jury awarded Dr. Farmer about $236,000 for breach of contract damages, including $170,000 for lost wages, and $3.5 million for humiliation, mental and emotional distress, according to the report.
"Baptist Health followed its medical staff policies, and appropriately responded to concerns raised about Dr. Farmer's well-being and behavior on the date in question," a spokesperson for the health system told Becker's. "We are evaluating our post-verdict options, as we believe the facts as they occurred do not support the verdict. Our primary focus remains providing high-quality care to our patients and families."