Dignity Health Whistleblower Faces Damages Redo for Firing

Dignity Health wrongfully terminated a pharmacist of Iranian origin who reported patient safety concerns in her department to her supervisors, a California appeals court said.

Mandy Kazminy’s damages, however, must be recalculated because she didn’t have enough evidence to win on most of her claims, a jury overvalued her economic losses, and she was improperly awarded punitive damages, the California Court of Appeal, Third District, said in an unpublished opinion.

Kazminy was hired to be the pharmacist-in-charge of the outpatient pharmacy at a Dignity Health hospital in Woodland, Calif. Hospital officials knew at the time that there were several problems in the pharmacy, but they didn’t tell Kazminy.

From the beginning, Kazminy had difficulty with her supervisor, Denise Foreman. She reported discrepancies between the number of drugs recorded on the pharmacy’s computer system versus the number actually there, as well as policy violations by the pharmacy staff regarding password sharing and patient consultations.

Foreman refused to address Kazminy’s concerns and reportedly made several derogatory comments about Iranian women to Kazminy and another staff member. Chief Medical Officer Mitesh Patel eventually fired Kazminy at Foreman’s urging.

Kazminy sued Dignity Health for national-origin discrimination in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, retaliation based on national-origin discrimination under FEHA, violations of California’s whistleblower retaliation law, and wrongful discharge in violation of public policy.

A jury awarded Kazminy over $1 million in compensatory damages and nearly $2.5 million in punitive damages. The trial judge partially granted judgment notwithstanding the verdict for Dignity and stripped Kazminy of about $1 million in punitive damages.

The punitive damages award couldn’t stand because there was no proof that Patel—who actually had the responsibility for firing Kazminy—demonstrated any malice towards her, the court said. Foreman’s malice couldn’t be attributed to him, Acting Presiding Justice Harry E. Hull Jr. said in Tuesday’s opinion.

The appeals court also found that Kazminy didn’t produce enough evidence to prevail on the whistleblower retaliation claim because Dignity Health already knew about the problems she reported. There was no substantial evidence that Foreman ordered Kazminy to participate in any illegal activity or that Kazminy refused to do so, the court also said.

And, even though Kazminy couldn’t prevail on her FEHA discrimination claim, she was entitled to attorneys’ fees under the law because she showed that discrimination was a substantial motivating factor for her firing, the appeals court said.

Kazminy, however, established that Dignity Health fired her in violation of public policy for reporting concerns about the quality of patient care, including prescription “misfills” and the reasons for them, the court said. The court sent the case back to the trial court.

Justices Elena J. Duarte and Andrea Lynn Hoch joined.

The case is Kazminy v. Dignity Health, Cal. Ct. App., 3d Dist., No. C091802, unpublished 2/28/23.