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A jury in Louisville, Kentucky, awarded a former employee of Baptist Health Madisonville $3.7 million in damages, finding the company violated the terms of his employment contract and interfered with his future business relationships.
Dr. John Farmer was in his third year of a family medicine residency program at Baptist Health when he was accused of being “on something” at work.
A patient’s mother reported on Nov. 4, 2019, that she felt like Farmer was “touching his nose a lot and constantly moving from side to side.”
The residency program director handled the complaint and spoke to two supervising doctors who had worked with Farmer that afternoon, one of whom participated in the patient visit.
Both supervising doctors confirmed Farmer wasn’t impaired by alcohol or drugs and that he was his usual self that afternoon.
But the director called a meeting with leadership from Baptist Health Madisonville and Baptist Health Medical Group to decide Farmer’s fate.
Baptist Health’s policies say the accused doctor should be spoken to and assessed for possible impairment in this scenario. Then, if there is a reasonable suspicion of impairment, the accused doctor is to be immediately tested for drugs and alcohol.
The complaint alleges Farmer wasn’t informed about the allegations until the next morning, after leadership had already agreed to require him to go to the Kentucky Physicians Health Foundation in Louisville for evaluation and possible treatment. Farmer was placed on a leave of absence, pending an evaluation.
Farmer signed an order Nov. 22, 2019, that prohibited him from the practice of medicine “until approved to do so” by the health foundation.
Beginning Dec. 2, 2019, Farmer underwent evaluation at a facility in Atlanta. He returned to the health foundation in Louisville nine days later and signed a contract that included a two-year agreement to abstain from drugs and alcohol, and it included regular testing, monitoring and therapy.
The health foundation then extended that to five years and made compliance a condition of retaining his medical license.
Farmer completed his residency in September 2020 — about two months later than normal because of the delay.
Farmer sued in January 2021, alleging breach of contract and interference with business activities. He said the contract and order he signed would be a “red flag” to prospective employers and that his job prospects were diminished.
The jury found in favor of Farmer, awarding him about $236,000 for breach of contract damages — including $170,000 for lost wages — and $3.5 million for humiliation, mental and emotional distress.
“We are very pleased with the jury’s carefully considered verdict and are proud of our client for standing up in the face of injustice,” Farmer’s lead attorney, Kathleen A. DeLaney of Indianapolis law firm DeLaney & DeLaney LLC, said in a statement. “The jury did what Baptist Health Madisonville and Baptist Health Medical Group should have done — recognize the unsubstantiated accusation for what it was.”
Farmer now practices family medicine in Johnson City, Tennessee.
The case is Farmer v. Baptist Health Medical Group, Inc., 20-CI-143, in Jefferson Circuit Court.
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