Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare's CEO and other executives are scheduled to be deposed in connection with a whistleblower lawsuit filed by two women who were contracted as housekeepers at Detroit's Harper University Hospital and Hutzel Women's Hospital, as reported by Bloomberg Law Nov. 7.
Court documents accessed by Becker's show that a federal judge ruled Nov. 6 that Tenet CEO Saum Sutaria, MD, former Detroit Medical Center CEO Audrey Gregory, PhD, and current Detroit Medical Center CEO Brittany Lavis may each be deposed for up to two hours, with the scope of questioning limited. The depositions must occur on or before Nov. 22.
The lawsuit, filed in 2022, alleges Denise Bonds and Shenesia Rhodes were fired in retaliation for reporting concerns about what they described as dirty operating rooms and other unsanitary conditions.
The women were contracted by Crothall Healthcare/Compass Group to clean the hospitals, which are interconnected within the Detroit Medical Center system. Detroit Medical Center is owned by Tenet, and Crothall is a subsidiary of Compass, a food and support services provider. Compass, Crothall, DMC and Tenet are all named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The women, who were also union stewards, alleged that before the pandemic, daily cleaning supplies were not available for housekeepers to do their jobs properly and that the situation worsened with time.
Defendants moved for a protective order against the depositions Sept. 11, which was denied Nov. 6, according to court documents.
"Both sides use timeliness in their arguments — Crothall/Compass to say that the deposition notice was untimely, plaintiffs to say defendants waived objections because they did not move for a protective order when plaintiffs first noticed the deposition. Neither argument is availing," the judge wrote.
The decision is among recent rulings rejecting the so-called Apex Doctrine, a legal principle that "gives the court discretion to prevent or limit the deposition of a high-level corporate employee in certain circumstances," according to Bloomberg Law.
Becker's has reached out to Tenet and Crothall/Compass and will update this story accordingly.