Hofmann v. Bethesda Found., Inc.

• Decision Date: 28 August 2018
• Docket Number: Case No. 1:17-cv-143
• Parties: Glen Hofmann, Plaintiff, v. Bethesda Foundation, Inc. et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

Glen Hofmann, Plaintiff, v. Bethesda Foundation, Inc. et al., Defendants.

Case No. 1:17-cv-143

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO WESTERN DIVISION

August 28, 2018

Judge Susan J. Dlott

Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Motion for Summary Judgment

This matter is before the Court on Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 25). Plaintiff Glen Hofmann, M.D., sues his former employers, Defendants Bethesda, Inc. d/b/a Bethesda Fertility Center ("Fertility Center"), Bethesda, Inc., Bethesda Hospital, Inc., and Bethesda Foundation, Inc. (collectively, "Bethesda") for discrimination after his employment contract was not renewed.¹ Bethesda argues that it is entitled to summary judgment on each of Dr. Hofmann's claims as a matter of law. For the reasons that follow, the Court will GRANT IN PART AND DENY IN PART the Motion for Summary Judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

1. Parties and General Background

Plaintiff Glen Hofmann, M.D., became medical director of the Fertility Center in 1992. He also led the Bethesda Hospital's residency program for obstetrics and gynecology training foryoung doctors. Hofmann had employment agreements with Bethesda for the medical director position and for his work with medical residents. Bethesda is a part of TriHealth, but TriHealth does not directly manage the Fertility Center for religious reasons. At all times relevant here, the Fertility Center did not make money, but Bethesda operated it to provide a medical service to its patients and training for its residents. Dr. Hofmann and the Fertility Center had an excellent reputation in the community.

Mike Crofton was the TriHealth chief financial officer ("CFO"). He also served as a liaison between TriHealth and the Fertility Center, and he was Dr. Hofmann's direct supervisor at all relevant times. Jill Miller was the executive director of Bethesda, Inc. Mark Holcomb was the president and chair of the Board of Trustees of Bethesda, Inc. In 2010, Bethesda, Inc. hired the ScrogginsGrear Consulting firm to help manage the Fertility Center. Hofmann testified that ScrogginsGrear principal Paul Trenz handled contracts and important business decisions and his son, Luke Trenz, handled budgeting and accounting.²

2. Hiring of Dr. Reynolds, Retirement Questions, and Cancer

In February 2013, Dr. Hofmann emailed a former resident who had trained at the Fertility Center, Dr. Kasey Reynolds, to solicit her to return to the Fertility Center to practice the following year. (Doc. 13-2 at PageID 473-74.) In an email dated February 4, 2013, Dr. Hofmann stated as follows:

Your value first is as a woman. Hate that but it's true. Your best asset is that are bright and, and willing to work hard. That last asset is very hard to come and is gender neutral.

(Id. at PageID 472 (errors in the original).) Dr. Hofmann was a part of the team that hired Dr. Reynolds to the Fertility Center. (Hofmann Dep., Doc. 20 at PageID 1406.)

Also in February 2013, around the time the Fertility Center was recruiting Dr. Reynolds, Paul Trenz first asked Dr. Hofmann when he planned to retire. That same month, when Dr. Hofmann and Trenz were discussing the recent deaths of people they knew, Trenz commented that it showed "how we are all getting older." (Id. at PageID 1401.) Trenz then asked Dr. Hofmann again in November 2013 about his retirement plans. (Id. at PageID 1397-1400.) He told Dr. Hofmann that "the corporate people would probably just like to know, so they could give a young physician some idea as to what the older doctor was doing." (Id. at PageID 1398.) He stated that the Fertility Center wanted to be able to recruit for the future. (Id. at PageID 1402.)

In October 2013, Dr. Hofmann was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. (Id. at PageID 1395.) He underwent active chemotherapy treatments for six months and then prophylactic chemotherapy treatments every two months for two years. (Id. at PageID 1467-68.) He never missed a day of work because of his cancer or the chemotherapy treatments. (Id. at PageID 1395.) Hofmann was in remission in September 2017 when he was deposed in this suit. (Id. at PageID 1396.) He stated that Paul Trenz commented one time about the fact that he had cancer, but he could not remember in what context the comment was made. (Id. at PageID 1469-70.)

In August 2014, Dr. Reynolds began as a staff physician at the Fertility Center. (Reynolds Dep., Doc. 13 at PageID 334, 336.) According to Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Hofmann told her when she was first hired that he wanted to retire within two to three, or three to five years. (Id. at PageID 356, 390.) She testified that she was told that she eventually would become the medical director. (Id. at PageID 357.)

3. Retention of Employees and Changing Office Managers

In early 2015, TriHealth's human resources department conducted an investigation of employee retention and management practices at the Fertility Center because of concerns about high staff turnover. (L. Trenz Dep., Doc. 16 at PageID 737.) Eight employees had left the Fertility Center in an eighteen-month period. (Doc. 14-6 at PageID 554.) Linda Rozzi, a senior human resources consultant for TriHealth, recommended the study because of the turnover and because she received complaints about how Dr. Hofmann and Phyllis Bryant managed the clinic. (Rozzi Dep., Doc. 14 at PageID 508-09.) Bryant had been the office manager at the Fertility Center since the 1990's. (L. Trenz Dep., Doc. 16 at 734.) Dr. Hofmann was her supervisor. (Id.) Luke Trenz believed that she was not a strong office manager and that she was viewed as creating a toxic environment in the Fertility Center. (Id. at PageID 735.) He believed that Bryant and Dr. Hofmann reinforced each other's decisions in regards to staff management. (Id. at PageID 737.)

In the retention report dated May 20, 2015, Rozzi noted that employees told her that "Bryant lacks conflict management skills and actually creates much of the conflict, breaches confidentiality with employees, interferes with/disrupts clinical operations and exhibits bullying types of behavior on a regular basis." (Doc. 14-6 at PageID 557.) She noted that employeesstated that Dr. Hofmann supported Bryant "in all her decisions and does not consider feedback from employees." (Id. at PageID 558.) Finally, she recommended terminating Bryant, but she did not recommend taking any disciplinary action against Dr. Hofmann. (Id.; Rozzi Dep., Doc. 14 at PageID 518.) Bryant was terminated from the Fertility Center. (Hofmann Dep., Doc. 20 at PageID 1415.) Dr. Hofmann opposed the decision to fire Bryant. (Id. at PageID 1416-17.) He testified that his employment contract gave him reasonable input on such decisions, but that he was not given reasonable input. (Id.)

Dr. Hofmann recommended that the Fertility Center hire Stacey Froehlich to be the new office manager. Froehlich had been the office manager for her husband's medical practice, and she and her husband were friends with Dr. Hofmann. (Id. at PageID 1415-16.) She was hired as the office manager in August 2015. (Froehlich Dep., Doc. 15 at PageID 575.)

4. Conflicts at the Fertility Center and the Hiring of Dr. Robertshaw

Dr. Reynolds described Dr. Hofmann's treatment of the patients and staff at the Fertility Center, including her, as "disruptive." (Reynolds Dep., Doc. 13 at PageID 355.) She stated that Dr. Hofmann was aloof towards her and rebuffed her requests for mentorship. (Id. at PageID 356-57.) She stated that patients complained to her that Dr. Hofmann was "gruff" and "rude." (Id. at PageID 374-75.) She testified that he made clinically inappropriate comments about patients' body weight in front of staff and sometimes within earshot of patients, though she admitted that there is correlation between a patient's body weight and IVF success. (Id. at PageID 374-75, 377-79.) She did not report Dr. Hofmann's inappropriate comments regarding patients to the Trenzes, but she did tell Paul Trenz that he was difficult to work with. (Id. atPageID 375-76.) Dr. Hofmann, in turn, testified that Dr. Reynolds was "very moody" and "complain[ed] a lot." (Hofmann Dep., Doc. 20 at PageID 1424.)

Dr. Reynolds was frustrated when she felt she was not progressing towards the goal of succeeding Dr. Hofmann as the medical director. She testified that she asked Dr. Hofmann to start teaching and training her, but he did not. (Reynolds Dep., Doc. 13 at PageID 383.) In October 2015, Dr. Hofmann counseled Dr. Reynolds in an email for her failure to follow proper practices when meeting a new patient, including the failure to perform breast examinations on all patients. (Doc. 19-1 at PageID 1335; Hofmann Dep., Doc. 20 at PageID 1424-26.) She responded by requesting a meeting with Dr. Hofmann, Paul Trenz, and Luke Trenz to discuss that issue and what she saw as the stagnation in her progress towards taking the medical director role. (Doc. 19-1 at PageID 1334-35; Reynolds Dep., Doc. 13 at PageID 357; Hofmann Dep., Doc. 20 at PageID 1424.)

Dr. Hofmann advised Paul Trenz and Luke Trenz that he did not believe that Dr. Reynolds was qualified to take over as the medical director at that time. (Doc. 19-1 at PageID 1334.) He thought that she wanted to be medical director because she was "cash-strapped" with "a new house and her student loans[,]" and she assumed the medical director position came with higher pay. (Doc. 20 at PageID 1425.) Dr. Hofmann testified that Paul Trenz told Dr. Reynolds at the meeting that she was not qualified to be the medical director because she was not yet board certified. (Id. at PageID 1426-27.) However, Paul Trenz testified at his deposition that he did not think he could make the judgment as to whether or not Dr. Reynolds was qualified to be the medical director because he was not a clinician. (Doc. 19 at PageID 1246.) He further testified that he understood from his discussions with Dr. Jack Basil, the obstetrics and gynecologydepartment chair for Good Samaritan and...