A triple board-certified physician specializing in critical care medicine and pulmonology for Northeast Georgia Physicians Group (NGPG) has filed a discrimination lawsuit against NGPG and Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS).
This follows a similar lawsuit filed in January against NGPG and NGHS by three Indian American employees.
The most recent suit was filed in federal court on April 28 by Dr. Erine Raybon-Rojas.
“She is also an African-American woman and, unfortunately, those two facts have had far more of a pivotal role in her employment than they should,” the filing read.
Raybon-Rojas’ attorney, Alex Meier based out of Atlanta, said in the filing that NGHS is plagued by “systemic racial and gender-based discrimination.”
The lawsuit seeks to rectify the discrimination Raybon-Rojas has faced and obtain declaratory and injunctive relief, back pay, front pay, a litany of damages, and attorneys’ fees.
The first claim of the suit alleges that despite her “uniformly positive performance reviews and performance metrics,” the defendants have “sidelined Dr. Raybon-Rojas, diminished her responsibilities, blocked her appointment to positions inside NGPG, adversely affected her career trajectory, and are actively scheming to create a … justification to terminate her employment.”
The next claim is that NGPG has a diverse number of medical directors. The medical directors report to a director, however, and they claim that “there is a precipitous drop-off in non-white, non-male physicians in leadership positions.”
An amended complaint filed on July 9 says numerous current and former employees have described NGHS as a “‘racist,’ ‘discriminatory,’ or ‘retaliatory’ environment.”
Meier spoke to AccessWDUN on Thursday about his client’s lawsuit.
“There are a number of people in the health system who feel the way that she does, and some of the people have been too scared to articulate the issues that they have faced, because they’re likewise concerned about retaliation,” Meier said. “I think [Raybon-Rojas] basically got to the point where she thought that somebody needed to stand up and that she would be the one to do it.”
NGPG allegedly denies promotion opportunities
Back to Raybon-Rojas’ suit, they claim that beginning in or around 2018, she began performing the duties that the assistant medical director of critical care performs.
In 2021, NGPG fired the acting medical director of critical care and following their termination, Raybon-Rojas had conversations with then-NGPG President Daniel Tuffy.
“During those conversations, Tuffy assured Dr. Raybon-Rojas that she would receive this [Assistant Medical Director] role … when Dr. Raybon-Rojas received her amended contract, the contract did not contain any indication that she would be the Assistant Medical Director,” the filing read.
Raybon-Rojas reportedly raised these concerns to Dr. Bedri Yusuf, NGPG’s Chief Physician Executive.
In 2021, NGPG fired its surgical medical director and promoted a white male physician without any open application process, according to the suit.
Raybon-Rojas told Yusuf that she felt like there was a double standard, and said the difference was that she is a Black female. Yusuf allegedly replied “I see how you could think that.”
The lawsuit alleges that Yusuf has “repeatedly expressed his belief that women physicians are less capable than male physicians.”
“Dr. Yusuf and Mr. Tuffy have dealt with so many discrimination complaints regarding NGPG’s unlawful personnel decisions that they’ve developed a stock line to respond to them,” the filing read.
Raybon-Rojas allegedly pushed out of fellowship program she created
In 2021, Raybon-Rojas began work on creating a pulmonology and critical care fellowship at NGHS.
In late 2021, NGPG hired Dr. Konstantin Zubelevitskiy as medical director of clinical care. He is also listed as a defendant alongside NGHS and NGPG.
Raybon-Rojas reportedly expressed interest in the role before it was filled, but Yusuf allegedly dissuaded her.
The lawsuit claims that soon after being hired, Zubelevitskiy began “targeting” Raybon-Rojas for poor treatment. “Upon information and belief, he did so because Dr. Raybon-Rojas is a black female physician,” the filing read.
In 2022, Raybon-Rojas achieved accreditation for the fellowship program. It was not long until Zubelevitskiy began taking measures to undermine her and push her out of this program, the lawsuit claims.
Zubelevitskiy allegedly began smearing Raybon-Rojas’ name to other physicians, attacking her competence and job performance.
After a meeting with Raybon-Rojas, the health system decided to cancel the fellowship.
Shortly after, physicians consoled Raybon-Rojas with one reportedly telling her that NGPG did not want to see a Black woman program director.
“Based on my investigation and discussions with other physicians, the operative rule-of-thumb is that if you design and basically go through the accreditation process for a fellowship program, then that person … would be the one who would be in charge of it,” Meier told AccessWDUN.
Complaints to NGHS Human Resources
In May of 2022, NGPG allegedly placed Raybon-Rojas on a week of night shifts with only two weeks of notice. The shift was not permitted under her employment agreement, and she notified NGPG shortly after.
Zubelevitskiy reportedly told Raybon-Rojas that he was removing her from the schedule due to her reluctance to work the shift schedule that went against her employment agreement.
“In the resulting meeting, Mr. Tuffy told Dr. Raybon-Rojas that she had not done anything wrong, but he nonetheless upheld the decision to remove Dr. Raybon-Rojas from the schedule. Around the same time, Dr. Yusuf also told Dr. Raybon-Rojas that ‘maybe this isn’t the place for [Dr. Raybon-Rojas],’” the filing read.
After reporting discrimination to human resources, there was reportedly no investigation into Raybon-Rojas’ allegations.
“Dr. Raybon-Rojas had run headfirst into NGPG’s color barrier and glass ceiling. She was scrutinized for trivial issues that other, non-black … physicians were not,” the idling read.
Revival of the fellowship program
NGPG decided to revive the fellowship program Raybon-Rojas created.
They selected Dr. Vijay Ramalingham to head it, and Zubelevitskiy allegedly went from trying to kill the program to “giving it his full backing.”
NGPG also had Raybon-Rojas do the accreditation process again.
Two weeks before the site visit, NGPG reportedly removed Raybon-Rojas’ name from the program.
“Based on what I’m aware of … some folks did kind of suggest that there was a pretty substantial about face in his support for the program after it became clear that she wasn’t going to be the one to lead it anymore,” Meier told AccessWDUN.
Claims made by Raybon-Rojas
Raybon-Rojas is suing on counts of a racially hostile work environment, race discrimination, gender discrimination, and retaliation.
Raybon-Rojas is demanding a jury trial. The
There was a similar lawsuit against NGPG, NGHS, and Georgia Urology filed on Jan. 28 by three Indian Americans that worked for them, two in the urology department.
The two in the urology department were Dr. Kapil Pareek and Anisha Patel, a physician’s assistant. The other plaintiff is Jyoti Manekar, a physician specializing in bariatric medicine.
Their lawsuit is still ongoing and all of them are seeking lost wages and benefits as well as damages.
All three raised concerns about Tuffy. Tuffy recently resigned from NGPG, though NGHS told AccessWDUN Thursday that his departure is not related to this or any other litigation.
Dr. Kapil Pareek
Pareek began with NGHS in 2010 and was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. In 2020, Pareek and other physicians in urology reportedly had a meeting with Tuffy in which they claimed Tuffy was “disrespectful” to Pareek and his Indian American colleagues.
Two people within NGPG allegedly tried to convince others in the office that he had issues with his memory and cognition post-cancer treatment.
Patel was also fired and was allegedly told it was a “collective decision,” even though Pareek had no say in the firing.
Pareek’s cancer also came back, and his medical assistant also quit working with him. Pareek was angered at the way NGPG handled staff changes and was allegedly told they “will try to do better.”
After allegedly facing disrespect by coworkers, Pareek filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint. Pareek reportedly asked for a non-retaliatory clause after withdrawing the complaint, but was denied.
In 2024, it was announced that NGPG urology would be dissolved and shut down at the end of the year.
They were in contractual negotiations with Georgia Urology, and NGHS said they would do everything to assist with the transition.
Pareek was told by NGPG that his employment would end on Dec. 31, 2024.
Also, Pareek’s cancer returned in August of 2024. Around that time, Tuffy made a meeting request with Pareek. In that meeting, Tuffy allegedly accused Pareek of “disruptive behavior” and “making derogatory remarks” about the organization, which Pareek denied.
Pareek was the only medical professional from NGPG to not enter a formal negotiation with Georgia Urology, and they allegedly offered increased compensation for NGPG medical professionals who had not reported discrimination.
“This refusal to engage in employment conversations with the only Indian American Physician who engaged in protected activities in opposing race discrimination shows they prioritized employees who did not engage in protected activities shows they prioritized employees who did not engage in protected activities over experience and productivity,” the filing read.
Jyoti Manekar
Manekar claims she was “ignored and disregarded on a daily basis.” She also claims NGPG and NGHS provided him with inadequate staff since 2021.
Due to this, she claims she was unable to take more patients and had to work harder than her white colleagues.
Manekar also allegedly had her marketing discontinued, making her unable to attract new clients.
When Manekar updated her personal website to circumvent the lack of marketing, Tuffy allegedly demanded she take it down.
Manekar was also in consideration for the bariatric director position at the time.
The person who discontinued Manekar’s marketing was Dr. Alex Nugyen. His wife, Dr. Christina Nguyen, got the position over Manekar. Christina and Alex Nguyen also allegedly used Manekar’s ideas and presented them as their own.
Manekar also allegedly faced compensation discrepancies and eventually resigned to take her practice elsewhere.
Anisha Patel
Patel also made claims leading up to her firing of being unfairly criticized compared to her non-Indian American counterparts.
In this lawsuit, the three plaintiffs claim that NGHS and NGPG violated the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and will also have a jury trial.
NGHS said in a statement to AccessWDUN that they are not in a position to comment on ongoing litigation but they “look forward to contesting the claims in court.”
“We value inclusion for all of our employees and stand behind NGHS’ policies that the organization complies with applicable Federal and State civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex or any other basis protected by law,” the Thursday statement read.
“I don’t expect this to be the last lawsuit that gets filed against the health system,” Meier told AccessWDUN.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
