Opinion ID: 2979115
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Burgess and Turner

Text: Burgess’s primary responsibility as a phone operator was to arrange transportation for Medicaid clients and enter the information into the PATS computer system. According to records kept by PATS for June 6, 2002 through Burgess’s termination on Friday, July 12, 2002, the two other phone operators logged well over double the hours and inbound calls that Burgess did. On July 12, Kitchin and operations manager Kim Adair showed the phone records to Burgess and informed her that she was being terminated because she “was not doing the job [she] was hired for.” The disciplinary action form for Burgess stated the reasons for her discharge as gross inefficiency, gross neglect of her duties, and “failure to work.” Burgess believed the phone records to be inaccurate and asked if she could come back to have the records checked. Kitchin said that she could return Tuesday, July 16, 2002 and meet with Adair about the accuracy of the records. Before the meeting took place, Burgess and Turner arranged to meet at the office on Saturday, July 13 so Burgess could “get proof to show them that the phone logs were wrong.” They met at the office and Burgess went to her former computer work station while Turner went to her office. Burgess examined trip data on the computer system, looking for her initials next to the Medicaid trips she had arranged. Turner too looked for the same information from her computer. The names and social security numbers of clients were displayed on the computer as they looked through the trip data. While Burgess and Turner were on the computers, Kitchin came into the office before leaving on a business trip. He asked what they were doing there and told Burgess that she was not supposed to come in until Tuesday, when she was to meet with Adair. Turner thought that Burgess had been given permission to “prove her job,” but Turner did not know Burgess was supposed to have waited until Tuesday to come in, and she admitted that it was “a bad decision” to let Burgess into the office. Turner had signed an Employee Confidentiality/Security Agreement, under which “causing confidential information and/or records to be accessed or released” by “other individuals, clients, relatives, etc., outside the scope of [the employee’s] assigned job duties would constitute a violation of this agreement and may result in disciplinary action taken against [the employees], up to and including dismissal.” The Agreement defined as “confidential” any records or reports that identified a patient or client. On Thursday, July 18, Kitchin returned from his trip and called Turner into his office and offered her a resignation agreement with a severance check. The next day, Turner informed Kitchin that she had decided against signing the agreement. Kitchin then terminated her, effective July 18, and gave her a disciplinary action, which stated the grounds for termination as dishonesty, personal use of PATS property, and allowing a terminated employee unauthorized access to the office and to the computer system, in breach of the confidentiality agreement.