Estate of Rice v. Correctional Medical Services

• Decision Date: 26 January 2009
• Docket Number: No. 3:06-CV-697 RM.,3:06-CV-697 RM.
• Parties: ESTATE OF Nicholas D. RICE, Deceased, by: Rick D. RICE and Diane J. Waldrop Co-Personal Representatives, Plaintiff v. CORRECTIONAL MEDICAL SERVICES, a Missouri Corporation, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

596 F.Supp.2d 1208

ESTATE OF Nicholas D. RICE, Deceased, by: Rick D. RICE and Diane J. Waldrop Co-Personal Representatives, Plaintiff v. CORRECTIONAL MEDICAL SERVICES, a Missouri Corporation, et al., Defendants.

Cause No. 3:06-CV-697 RM.

United States District Court, N.D. Indiana, South Bend Division.

January 26, 2009.

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Paul W. Broschay Phv, Geoffrey N. Fieger, Fieger Fieger Kenney Johnson & Giroux PC, Southfield, MI, Sean W. Drew, Drew Law Office, Niles, MI, for Plaintiff.

Brian G. Cahill, J. Ric Gass, Kristal S. Stippich, Shawn K. Stevens, Gass Weber Mullins LLC, Milwaukee, WI, Jon F. Schmoll, Kathleen M. Maicher, Robert D. Brown, Spangler Jennings & Dougherty PC, Merrillville, IN, Carol A. Dillon, James F. Bleeke, Sweetin & Bleeke PC, Indianapolis, IN, John Spencer Feighner, Melanie L. Farr, John O. Feighner, Haller & Colvin PC, Fort Wayne, IN, Michael F. Deboni, Nathaniel M. Jordan, Yoder Ainlay Ulmer and Buckingham LLP, Goshen, IN, A. Howard Williams, South Bend, IN, Lynn E. Kalamaros, Dinah H. Sampson, Hunt Suedhoff Kalamaros LLP, South Bend, IN, Louis W. Voelker, III, Trenton W. Gill, Eichhorn & Eichhorn, Hammond, IN, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

ROBERT L. MILLER, JR., Chief Judge.

This cause is before the court on the motion of defendants Goshen General Hospital and A.P. Mathew, MD for summary judgment as to the plaintiff's claims that Dr. Mathew deprived Nicholas Rice of his constitutional rights while acting under "color of law" in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983¹ and the plaintiff's state law claims alleging that Goshen Hospital and Dr. Mathew negligently failed to provide adequate medical care and treatment to Nicholas Rice. The action, brought by Mr. Rice's Estate, arises from Mr. Rice's death while detained at the Elkhart County Jail where he battled schizophrenia and various complications as a result of his refusal to take medication and self-imposed starvation. About ten weeks before his death, Mr. Rice was admitted to Goshen Hospital because of his deteriorating mental and physical condition; Dr. Mathew was his attending physician at Goshen Hospital. Dr. Mathew seeks summary judgment on counts I and II of the Estate's complaint, contending that she isn't a state actor and wasn't deliberately indifferent to Mr. Rice's serious medical needs. Dr. Mathew and Goshen Hospital also seek summary judgment on count III, contending that the Estate hasn't satisfied the statutory condition precedent to the filing of a medical malpractice claim under Indiana law.

For the following reasons, the court grants the defendants' motion for summary judgment.

I. FACTS

The following facts are taken from the summary judgment record and are viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.

Elkhart County Jail's Relationship with Goshen General Hospital

Goshen Hospital is a private, not-for-profit hospital located in Elkhart County, Indiana. Goshen Health System, Inc. is the not-for-profit corporate parent of Goshen Hospital Association, Inc., d/b/a Goshen General Hospital. During the relevant time period, Goshen Health System, Inc. employed Dr. Mathew in its Prime Care Physician Network division. She is board-certified in internal medicine and as part of her employment, she provided on-call coverage for patients presenting themselves to the emergency room who needed a physician for admittance to the hospital.

During 2003 and 2004, Goshen Health System had no direct contractual relationship with Elkhart County, with the Elkhart County Sheriff's Department, or with any governmental entity obligating it to provide medical care for inmates or detainees of the Elkhart County Jail. Dr. Mathew wasn't employed by and had no contract for services with Elkhart County or any other government entity in October 2004.

Elkhart County Sheriff Michael E. Books was responsible for the care of the inmates. Sheriff Books renewed the contract between the sheriff's department and Correctional Medical Services (CMS) — the Inmate Medical Service Agreement — under which CMS provided comprehensive health care services to jail inmates. To help meet its contractual obligations, CMS entered into a Provider Agreement with Indiana Lakes Managed Care Organization, LLC (identified in the agreement as "Provider") to provide covered services to correctional facility patients on the terms and conditions set forth in that agreement. In an attachment to the agreement, Goshen Hospital is named as the provider.² Another document describing CMS's policy and procedure for hospital and specialty care states that "Goshen General Hospital is the facility used for emergencies with Elkhart General Hospital available as needed. All physicians within both of these two healthcare systems accept inmates...." Neither Goshen Hospital nor Dr. Mathew is a signatory to these documents. Defendant Sharrone Jones, RN, a CMS employee working at the Elkhart County Jail during the relevant period, explained in her deposition that Mr. Rice was sent to Goshen Hospital because of the County's contract with the hospital.

Events Leading to Mr. Rice's Death

Mr. Rice had an extensive history of mental illness. In high school, he began mental health treatment through various medical providers and eventually obtained a diagnosis of schizophrenia, undifferentiated type. Mr. Rice received counseling and was put on medication for this diagnosis. Mr. Rice was detained in the Berrien County Jail after being arrested for unlawful driving away from an attempted bank robbery; while there, he developed significant mental and physical health issues, requiring hospitalization. He was referred to the University of Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry for a determination of competency to stand trial and was finally transferred to Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital where he stayed for more than a month. On September 8, 2003, Mr. Rice was transferred to Elkhart County Jail as a pretrial detainee for attempted bank robbery; he was 21 years old. While he was in the custody of Elkhart County Jail, Mr. Rice's mental and physical condition progressively worsened until he died on December 18, 2004.

Bryce Rohrer, M.D., an Oaklawn Psychiatric Center employee, provided medical services to the Elkhart County Jail inmates. Dr. Rohrer saw Mr. Rice once or twice a month, sometimes weekly. Just over a month after his arrival at Elkhart County Jail, Mr. Rice began refusing his medication and food, became non-communicative and started exhibiting bizarre behavior such as walking around his cell naked. Throughout the rest of 2003 and the beginning of 2004, Mr. Rice began losing a significant amount of weight because of his refusal to take his medication and eat. Dr. Rohrer filed emergency petitions for Mr. Rice's commitment in October 2003 and May 2004; Mr. Rice was temporarily committed to Oaklawn both times, but each time was discharged after less than twenty-four hours. During his visits to Oaklawn in October 2003 and May 2004, Salvador Ceniceros M.D., board certified in psychiatry and neurology, saw Mr. Rice.

Mr. Rice was taken to Goshen Hospital on August 2, 2004 after he slashed his wrist in a suicide attempt. By October 2004, after thirteen months of his confinement at Elkhart County Jail, Mr. Rice had lost fifty pounds. Dr. Rohrer noted on October 5, 2004 that Mr. Rice's weight had dropped to 132 pounds, that he had sustained tremendous weight loss, refused to eat, refused medication and was seriously ill. Dr. Rohrer filed yet another emergency petition for commitment with the Elkhart Circuit Court on October 5, 2004, recommending that Mr. Rice be discharged to a medical facility where psychiatry is available. Dr. Rohrer's application explained that Mr. Rice was dying from malnutrition and would die if not restrained immediately. The court signed an emergency order that day instructing the Sheriff's Department to transport Mr. Rice to one of four health care facilities: Oaklawn, Goshen General Hospital, Bowen Center or Center for Behavior Medicine/Elkhart General Hospital for medical and psychiatric case treatment. Dr. Rohrer decided Mr. Rice should go to Goshen Hospital and directed Nurse Jones to see that Mr. Rice was transferred.

Mr. Rice arrived at Goshen Hospital on October 5. While there, he was shackled to the bed and sheriff deputies were present with him. Mr. Rice was seen initially in the emergency department; the assessment record indicates that Mr. Rice was taken there because he wasn't eating or drinking and his acuity level was urgent. Barbara L. Zimmerman M.D., the emergency room physician who first examined Mr. Rice, was aware that he was possibly starving himself and might be having thoughts of suicide. Dr. Zimmerman noted that Mr. Rice had undifferentiated schizophrenia and hadn't been eating or "eating extremely small amounts" for some time. She conducted an initial evaluation of Mr. Rice, finding symptoms of dehydration and suspecting that he had some thoughts of suicide. In her diagnoses she indicated "(1) Undifferentiated schizophrenia[;] (2) Rule out suicidal ideation[; and] (3) Malnutrition and dehydration."

Dr. Mathew, on call that day at General Hospital, was Mr. Rice's attending physician and admitted him to the hospital after Dr. Zimmerman's initial examination. There is evidence that Dr. Mathew spoke with someone from Elkhart County Jail before Mr. Rice arrived, and that she agreed to handle his care. The medical and correctional records generated at the jail were provided to Goshen Hospital and were available to Dr. Mathew. After Dr. Mathew examined Mr. Rice and while he still was at the hospital, she reviewed his chart, which included jail records, certain medical records relating to his stay at Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital and Oaklawn, and the application for emergency detention records. Based on her review of the Oaklawn records, Dr. Mathew indicated that Mr. Rice might...