CAPE GIRARDEAU – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri recently granted a motion to dismiss a health care services company as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by deaf mother who claims violations of the the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In a ruling filed April 19, U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh agreed to dismiss CHSPSC as a defendant in the lawsuit filed by Claudette Couch, who also names the Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center as a defendant.
According to her lawsuit, Couch, who is deaf, brought her infant son to the Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center in November 2016 and was denied an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter both times she requested one. Left with no way to communicate with hospital staff about her son, Couch claims she had no other choice than to enlist her sister to translate for her. Allegedly, Couch had to sign a waiver that stated she refused an ASL translator before hospital staff would accept her sister’s translations, court filings said.
Couch’s sister eventually had to leave the hospital and could no longer provide her assistance, and Couch, again, was denied a translator upon request. Instead, she was provided with an allegedly ineffective Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) system, court filings said.
The lawsuit claims there was such a lack of communication between the staff and Couch that she was unable to make informed decisions regarding both the treatment and medication administered to her son.
CHSPSC, which used to be known as Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation, is a Tennessee-based management, consulting, advisory services provider and collections agency. The company provides its services to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center and, in doing so, enforces a code of conduct concerning communication accommodations for hard of hearing patients in the hospital.
The motion to dismiss came down to a question of whether the court had jurisdiction over CHSPSC, and Limbaugh determined Couch was unable to prove that it did.
The ruling noted CHSPSC has no official presence in Missouri and holds no ownership of the hospital in dismissing CHSPSC, leaving Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center as the only defendant in the lawsuit.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Southeastern Division, Case No. 1:18-cv-00277-SNLJ