By Namu Sampath
masslive.com
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A former worker for a Springfield ambulance service is accusing his past employer of retaliating against him after he reported concerns about its lax narcotic controls.
Springfield’s Nicholas Noto, a former employee of Action Ambulance Service, sued the ambulance company after he said it terminated his position for “reporting regulatory violations and other serious and ongoing concerns that impacted patient care and public safety” to several agencies, including the company’s operations manager.
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The lawsuit was filed last week in Hampden Superior Court.
Noto is being represented by Springfield attorney Tani Sapirstein. Sapirstein could not be immediately reached for comment.
This is the second time Action Ambulance Services Inc. has been sued this year. Earlier this year, the company was one of several defendants named in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Justine Barth, the Boston attorney representing the company in that lawsuit, could not be reached for comment. Another lawyer for the company has not yet been listed in the docket for the current lawsuit.
In court documents, Noto says he reported Action Ambulance’s alleged wrongdoings to Baystate Wing Hospital in Palmer, the state Department of Public Health, the state Office of Emergency Medical Services and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
What Noto says happened
Noto says he was promoted to paramedic supervisor in April. His role included, among other things, overseeing controlled and noncontrolled medications, medication inventory supply and ambulance configuration, and being a liaison between the Pioneer Valley division of the ambulance company and the physicians at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.
During this role and while performing administrative services, Noto says he noticed many violations, including expired controlled substance vials, failure to restock certain controlled substances, failure to maintain inventory, a flawed accounting system, an unaccounted for vial of a controlled substance, failure to retain required logbooks and expired certifications.
Noto reported his concerns to his operations manager, David Tetreault, and in May, to the other agencies after a medication error was investigated, the lawsuit says.
Shortly after Noto reported these concerns, he alleges Tetreault “announced the essential elimination of his position.”
In June, a representative of Baystate Wing Hospital emailed Action Ambulance Service, saying it was overdue for correcting the previous errors, and that the ambulance service had violated its agreement with the hospital.
Later in June, Noto says he learned his employer submitted a report that deviated from what he originally reported; the second report was rejected by Baystate Wing Hospital.
Shortly after his termination, Sapirstein requested Noto’s personnel record from his former employer, which the lawsuit said she still has not received a copy of.
Noto believes his former employer violated the health care whistleblower statute, violated public policy and state laws. He is requesting a jury trial.
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