Worker says she was fired for raising care concerns at nursing home

CHARLESTON – A former nursing facility worker is suing over claims she was fired after making complaints about patient care to her employer.

Doris Garten filed a lawsuit Sept. 15 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Gentiva Health Services, Girling Health Care, Nursing Care-Home Health Agency Inc. and Tammy Thompson, citing retaliatory discharge.

According to the complaint, Garten was employed as the manager of clinical practice under the supervision of Thompson at the defendant companies' facility in Chapmanville in Logan County, when, in early 2014, her duties changed from covering half of the facility's patients to all of them.

Garten says the facility was severely understaffed, affecting patient care, and she complained of this to management, which led to her malicious termination April 18. The defendants are accused of violating the West Virginia Patient Safety Act, retaliatory discharge and intent to inflict emotional distress.

Garten seeks compensatory and punitive damages plus interest.

She is represented by attorneys Larry O. Ford of Meyer, Ford, Glasser & Radman in Charleston and Todd S. Bailess of Bailess Law Firm in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge James C. Stucky.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 14-C-1701