PORTLAND — Maine Medical Center is disputing a number of the central claims laid out in the lawsuit of an employee who says the hospital retaliated against him for raising concerns about strip club outings by doctors.
Patrick O'Brien sued the hospital in May, claiming that he suffered retaliation because he had, in 2009, spoken out against a practice of bringing sports medicine residents and fellows to a strip club for lap dances while in Rhode Island for a conference. O'Brien said in his complaint that he feared pressure to participate in the outings constituted sexual harassment by creating a hostile working environment.
O'Brien, who was administrative director of the Department of Family Medicine, said his supervisor became hostile, that he was subjected to unfair treatment and was transferred to a different position.
In its answer to O'Brien's complaint, the hospital denied that a female resident had complained that her husband, also a resident, did not want to want to go to the strip club but felt pressured to go. The hospital also denied that another female physician went to the conference a day later because she didn't want to be associated with a strip club outing, as O'Brien claimed.
The hospital asserted that O'Brien's supervisor, Dr. Ann Skelton, did not have a problem with him reporting the incident but with the way he reported the outings, which he alleged was organized by two doctors in leadership positions. Skelton told O'Brien that she expected department members to raise issues in a "supportive and respectful, rather than accusatory and hostile manner," according to the document.
O'Brien, whose previous position was eliminated, took the newly created position of director of special projects last year. He complained that was moved to the oldest part of the hospital, into an isolated attic floor office frequented by bats. The hospital said the office is in the same building as its highest-level executives and admitted "that bats have been seen in the building, which is quite old."
Maine Medical Center filed its answer in U.S. District Court on Wednesday. The suit was initially filed in Cumberland County Superior Court and transferred to federal court.
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