Boston Children’s Hospital Ordered to Pay $1.9 Million in Discrimination Lawsuit
Boston Children’s Hospital has been ordered to pay a former employee almost $1.9 million for retaliating against her for filing a gender and age discrimination lawsuit, although the court did not find sufficient evidence of discrimination.
Amy Tishelman, 68, was employed as a psychologist and was a former research director at Boston Children’s Gender Multispecialty Service clinic and a leader in youth gender medicine. Tishelman, who the hospital had employed in various roles for almost 30 years, made a complaint to the HR department that she was being discriminated against due to her sex and age and was being underpaid compared to her male colleagues.
In 2020, after no action was taken in response to her complaint, Tishelman filed a discrimination lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court. She alleged that in addition to the discrimination, she had to endure demeaning treatment from her supervisors which allegedly stemmed from filing late patient evaluation reports.
Tishelman maintained that the reports were filed late because there was not sufficient time in the working day to file the reports on time due to her busy schedule. When she was aware that she would be unable to meet the deadline she resigned but was reinstated and given extra time to file the patient reports. Boston Children’s maintained that there was no discrimination, and claimed Tishelman had stopped being scheduled for a particular clinic due to “delinquent patient notes.”
In 2021, a year after the lawsuit was filed, Tishelman was fired for an alleged violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules. Boston Children’s Hospital alleged Tishelman had violated patient privacy by viewing the records of hundreds of patients “for personal gain.” Tishelman said she had accessed the patient records of another psychologist to demonstrate that she was not alone in filing late patient reports, although the hospital said that was not a valid reason for accessing patient records and stood by its decision to fire her for the HIPAA violation.
At the time of the termination, Tishelman was working on research into the long-term impacts of shorting the time for in-person assessments for children seeking medical intervention for gender dysphoria from 4 hours to 2 hours, which was covered at the trial. Tishelman and others at the hospital believed 2 hours was insufficient time for an assessment for treatment that could have permanent and life-changing consequences for the patient. The hospital, which took the decision to shorten the assessment time due to the increasing workload, maintains that all of the necessary information can be obtained in 2 hours. Tishelman said the hospital did not have enough data on the long-term implications of the policy and that the decision to shorten the time was reckless.
A jury determined that there was not sufficient evidence of discrimination against Tishelman but did find that the termination was retaliation for filing the lawsuit, although did not find that the retaliation was intentional and reckless or indifferent, therefore no punitive damages were awarded. Boston Children’s Hospital was ordered to pay Tishelman $1,872,386.27 in back pay plus interest, for future loss of earnings, and for the emotional distress caused.
