Mitchell County jury rules doctor fired amid pandemic was not wrongly terminated, but was defamed

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A Mitchell County jury has decided a popular Osage physician was not wrongly terminated in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also decided that the administrator of the Mitchell County Regional Health Center defamed him and disregarded his rights, and ordered she pay almost $163,000 in damages.

Dr. Mark Haganman filed a civil lawsuit in Mitchell County District Court in March 2021 which said the Mitchell County Regional Health Center (MCRHC) and MercyOne wrongfully terminated his employment, breached the terms of their employment agreement, and that MCRHC CEO Michelle Russell interfered with Haganman’s employment and defamed him.

According to court documents, Haganman claimed that he had been fired because be objected to how MCRHC was handling the COVID pandemic, accused the medical center of not following state and federal rules and guidelines regarding COVID safety, case management and patient care, and that management decisions were made to benefit another physician financially.

In a later amended petition, Haganman also claimed that he had been fired because he had complained that an employee of MCRHC was not acting competently and that the medical center had refused to report that employee to the state licensing board after firing that employee.

Haganman had worked in Osage for 28 years, and in 2015 was named physician of the year by the Iowa Academy of Family Physicians. He worked at the MCRHC mostly under an employment contract with MercyOne, but also with a separate contract with MCRHC for emergency room duties, according to court documents.

MCRHC and MercyOne said that Haganman was fired because he “​​engaged in disruptive and childish behavior, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation during an already tumultuous time. From hiding PPE and falsely telling MCRHC staff that the hospital was being turned into a ‘COVID clinic’ to intentionally walking through sterile surgical suites in street clothes, forcing staff to re-set and re-sterilize the space, to threatening to admit COVID-19 patients himself, Dr. Haganman’s behavior caused significant disruption to MCRHC at a time when its sole focus needed to be on appropriate and safely managing an unprecedented global pandemic,” according to court documents.”

MCRHC also argued, “Following full discovery in this matter including 15 depositions, Plaintiff has nothing more than conspiracies and speculation to support his claims.”

MercyOne said that it had at first offered to reassign Haganman elsewhere in its network after he was terminated by the MCRHC Board of Trustees, but he declined.

They also said that Haganman’s latest three-year contract had expired prior to his termination and that he had refused to sign an extension, returning a form unsigned.

After Haganman’s termination a number of people in the community voiced their support for the doctor.

“The Board experienced backlash from the community in the form of phone calls, e-mails, personal comments, and during a December 3, 2020, Board of Trustees meeting,” court records state.

The trial in the case started in Mitchell County District Court on Sept. 13 and the eight-person jury returned its verdict on Tuesday this week.

The jury said that Haganman had not proved that the hospital or MercyOne had wrongfully terminated him, had not proved that they had breached an agreement with Haganman, that neither organization had interfered with an employment contract with the other organization, and that CEO Russell had not intentionally interfered with the employment contract with either organization.

But the jury did find that Russell had “defamed” Haganman, and awarded $143,567.50 in past wages and $4,557 for damage to his reputation.

The jury also found that Russell “constituted willful and wanton disregard for his rights,” and awarded the doctor $14,812.45 in punitive damages.

The total award was $162,936.95.