A former employee of the housekeeping and environmental services company contracted to clean Detroit’s Harper-Hutzel Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Michigan has filed a lawsuit, alleging he was fired and discriminated against in retaliation for blowing the whistle on unsanitary conditions in operating rooms, patient areas, and baby delivery rooms.
The lawsuit was filed last week in Wayne County Circuit Court against North Carolina-based Compass Group and Crothall Healthcare, which were contracted to provide cleaning services for Tenet Healthcare, the for-profit parent company of the Detroit Medical Center, which operates the two hospitals.
Jerrell Atkins alleges he was fired in March, a year after he reported “unsafe, unsanitary, and dangerous conditions” in a complaint to Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA). According to the complaint, doctors were delivering babies in operating rooms with unsterile and unclean surgical equipment, beds, and rooms. Hospital workers were also using unsanitary machinery and equipment that was “contaminated by raw sewage and feces in surgical operating rooms,” Atkins alleged.
One of the biggest problems, the lawsuit claims, was the “shockingly outrageous” lack of cleaning supplies, which was part of an “extreme” cost-cutting move.
To avoid penalties from public agencies, the companies fabricated records to suggest they were in compliance, according to the suit.
Atkins, who is Black and gay, also alleged that upper management used racial and homophobic slurs “within earshot” of him and ignored his complaints about it.
The lawsuit alleges retaliation, hostile work environment, wrongful termination, and violations of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.
“This lawsuit is just part of a sharp blade that is being used to eradicate the cancerous culture of profits over safety fostered by Compass and Crothall,” said Muneeb M. Ahmad, an attorney with Just Right Law, which filed the lawsuit. “This lawsuit is a beacon of hope to other employees who may be afraid to speak up and is meant to give a voice against this retaliatory and discriminatory behavior.”
This is just the latest lawsuit filed by former Compass Group and Crothall Healthcare employees who worked at Tenet’s hospitals in Detroit. In June 2022, Denise Bonds, of Detroit, and Shenesia Rhodes, of St. Clair Shores, sued Tenet, Compass Group and Crothall Healthcare, alleging they were fired after raising concerns about the shortage of cleaning supplies and insufficient staffing. The shortage left Detroit's Harper University Hospital and Hutzel Women's Hospital dirty and unsanitary.
Metro Times reached out to Tenet Healthcare, Compass Group, and Crothall Healthcare for comment but they did not immediately respond.
