Nearly a dozen former employees of Family Health Centers of San Diego have sued the nonprofit over the past three years, alleging that understaffing compromised patient care and that the organization retaliated against workers who spoke up. UAPD has filed two unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board over the firings of two doctors.
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, former employees have filed retaliation claims in at least a dozen lawsuits over the last three years, seven of which remain pending while five have been settled. Family Health Centers of San Diego is one of the county’s largest federally qualified health center networks, operating more than 90 locations and serving more than 227,000 patients annually, per the same report. The nonprofit denied the allegations generally, telling the paper it does not retaliate against employees who raise concerns and that there are no staffing shortages putting patients at risk.
The most recent labor charge involves Dr. Raquel Cornejo Piña, a family physician who worked at the network’s Chula Vista clinic. Family Health Centers of San Diego fired Cornejo Piña in March, saying she had declined to sign a document confirming she deleted work emails containing hundreds of patients’ information that she had allegedly forwarded to her personal account, the Union-Tribune reports. Cornejo Piña denied committing any misconduct and alleged the nonprofit fired her for retaliatory reasons, claiming workplace protocols caused delays in patient care and that the organization retaliated after she complained that male staff received preferential treatment. She countersued the organization in July, while Family Health Centers of San Diego has sued her for breach of contract…