Workers Comp: Partial Disability Rating Does Not Rule Out Disability Discrimination

Workers Comp: Partial Disability Rating Does Not Rule Out Disability Discrimination.

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

December 2017

The nurse received a permanent partial disability rating and a settlement of her workers compensation case for an on-the-job lumbar sprain at the hospital. As to her rehiring the hospital was still required to consider whether the actual lifting restrictions from her physician were incompatible with the demands of the positions as floor nurse for which she had applied. UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS SIXTH CIRCUIT November 20, 2017

When the nurse was ready to return to work at the hospital after time off for a lumbar sprain injury at the hospital she submitted applications for more than sixty available floor nursing positions. However, unit nursing managers were sent an email by human resources directing them not to consider her for rehiring because she had a partial permanent disability rating from her workers compensation case from the lumbar sprain.

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Tennessee) ruled the nurse’s disability discrimination case against the hospital could go forward. It was not appropriate to rule out rehiring her as a floor nurse categorically on the basis of a workers compensation permanent partial disability rating.

The hospital should have looked at the lifting restrictions imposed by the nurse’s physician in light of the hospital’s expectations and the actual physical demands of the floor nursing positions for which the nurse had applied for rehiring. Vaughn v. Med. Ctr., __ Fed. Appx. __, 2017 WL 5564677 (6th Cir., November 20, 2017).