Psychologist sues Shared Health, U of M

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This article was published 13/11/2024 (331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A psychologist recruited to care for sick youths claims she was “pressured to engage in misconduct and other violations of professional standards” and then fired without cause when she complained to the provincial regulator.

The allegations are detailed in a lawsuit filed this week against Shared Health and the University of Manitoba in Court of King’s Bench.

According to the lawsuit, Dr. Michelle Keiski lodged a complaint with the Psychological Association of Manitoba in September 2022 to raise the alarm over issues inside the Max Rady College of Medicine, including the misreporting of studies and data, and staff providing services they are not qualified to deliver.

Keiski, a clinical psychologist, was placed on administrative leave one month after filing the complaint and later terminated without cause, the lawsuit said.

“The only reasonable explanation she was aware of was that she was being terminated for fulfilling her professional and ethical obligations by making her complaint,” it said.

“The decision to terminate her employment was retaliatory and without basis.”

Keiski was recruited from Kingston, Ont., and began working in a joint, term position with the university and Shared Health in October 2021. The term was 33 months, with an end date of June 30, 2024, the lawsuit said.

Keiski’s job with the university included teaching at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She was also tasked with administrative work relating to governance, policy formation, curriculum planning and program implementation, she said.

She specializes in neuropsychology, a branch of psychology that focuses on how brain ailments affect cognition and behaviour.

In her role with Shared Health, Keiski was to conduct research and provide neuropsychology services for youth suffering from neurological injuries or illnesses, including some pediatric patients requiring epilepsy surgery. She came to the province with an understanding her role would eventually extend to adult epilepsy surgery patients, she said.

Keiski would earn an annual salary of $119,336. Her employment agreement included a clause that either party could terminate the contract with six months written notice, the lawsuit said.

Within a year of working in Manitoba, Keiski said she became aware of issues impacting the delivery of epilepsy surgery services within Max Rady and the department of Clinical Health Psychology for approximately a decade.

Keiski said she raised her concerns with the head of her department, Dr. Lesley Graff, who made statements “indicating that she was aware of the long-standing issue vis-à-vis misrepresentation of qualifications and/or services,” the lawsuit said.

“Dr. Keiski ensured that Dr. Graff was aware of the existence of problematic patient care issues. Nevertheless, there were indications of intent to persist with these and other concerning issues,” the document said.

Meanwhile, Keiski claims she was under pressure to engage in misconduct.

She was told “there were concerns” she might speak critically of Shared Health and the university, and that “her employment might be contingent upon her refraining from expressing any such criticism,” the lawsuit said.

Keiski consulted with a registrar in the psychological association before filing the complaint, she said.

Shared Health and the university later provided her with a letter noting she was being terminated without cause. The parties provided her with six months pay in lieu of notice, she said.

“During Dr. Keiski’s employment with the defendants, she provided high quality care to all of her patients, performed her duties competently as an assistant professor, and consistently met and/or exceeded her employment obligations,” the lawsuit said.

“(She) had a professional and ethical obligation to make complaints to the regulatory body where misconduct occurred, or could reasonably (be) believed, to have occurred.”

Keiski is seeking an unspecified amount in damages for her termination, which she described as “harsh, vindictive, reprehensible, malicious and deserving of judicial condemnation.”

The allegations have not been tested in court.

Greg Bartel and Abram Silver, the Myers LLP lawyers representing Keiski in her claim, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

The Psychological Association of Manitoba said it could not discuss the details of Keiski’s complaint, including whether it is still being investigated or if it was dismissed.

Representatives from Shared Health and the University of Manitoba each declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

Issues surrounding treatments for people with epilepsy been long-standing and well-documented in Manitoba, with adult patients for years forced to seek surgery out-of province owing, in part, to obsolete equipment and staffing shortages.

In March, the provincial government opened a new, four-bed adult epilepsy monitoring unit at the Health Sciences Centre and said it was working toward offering surgeries in Manitoba. There was a wait list of about 200 other patients requiring such care at the time, the province said.

The Free Press previously reported approximately 15 pediatric patients were operated on each year between 2017 and June 2022.

In September 2021, around the time Keiski was recruited into the health system, a Winnipeg brain surgeon announced he was leaving Manitoba because the province failed to adequately fund an adult epilepsy surgery program.

When news of Dr. Demitre Serletis’ departure broke, another neurosurgeon, Dr. Juan Pablo Appendino, revealed he, too, had been hired to create a surgery program in 2010 but later abandoned the project and left the province due to limited funding.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca